STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923.
Evaleen Stein, artist, poet and writer of stories for children, was born at
Lafayette, Ind., on Oct. 12, 1863. Her father, John Andrew
Stein, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Lafayette in 1851 at the age of nineteen, became a
successful lawyer and participated prominently in
public affairs. He was a member of the Indiana Senate in 1869, where he introduced the act
that established Purdue University. Later he became a trustee of
that institution and was secretary of the board during its formative years.
Miss Stein's mother was Virginia Tomlinson of Logansport, a cultured woman, and both she and her husband
wrote verse, essays and stories that were published in local newspapers. A brother,
Orth Harper Stein, also had considerable literary gifts,
which he exercised in the field of journalism. He is credited with being one of the
first to obtain extensive fame as a columnist.
Miss Stein was educated in the local schools, graduating from the
Lafayette High School at the age of seventeen. Later she
attended classes at the Chicago Art Institute, as her first
interest was in this field, and she became an able illuminator, a form of decorative
design then much in vogue. Just when she began to turn her attention to poetry is
not certainly known, but her first verses appeared in print in 1886, chiefly in Indianapolis and Lafayette newspapers. Her first book of verse appeared early in 1897 and was entitled One Way to the
Woods. Five years later it was followed by Among the Trees
dyain. Her only other volume of original verse, the collection called
Child Sonys of Cheer, appeared in 1918.
She wrote also a long narrative poem commemorating the Battle of Tippecanoe (1911) and in 1916 the centennial
ode entitled Indiana. There also exist a few unpublished poems. Two other volumes of verse
consist of English versions of poems by foreign authors, Poems of
Giovanni Pascoli, 1923, from the Italian, and
Little Poems from Japanese dntholoyies, 1922.
Her original poetry deals largely with nature, of which she was a keen and accurate
observer, describing with meticulous detail its varying moods and the great variety
of form and color the seasons bring. She confined herself to traditional forms of
rhythm and rhyme and made extensive use of alliteration. She could, on occasion,
stir the deeper emotions or take the mind on broad flights of fancy, but for the
most part she preferred to portray the softer and less spectacular features of
nature and of human life. She was remarkably skilled in versification, on a lower
level and for her friends only, turning out with the greatest of ease verses on
anniversaries, accompanying or in acknowledgement of gifts, or giving humorous
descriptions of current news and events. She was also an effective reader of her own
poetry and that of others.
James Whitcomb Riley was an admirer of her poetry and gave both
advice and encouragement. In May 1907 he, together with
George Ade, Meredith Nicholson and Charles
Major, gave a benefit reading for Miss Stein on the
campus of Purdue University. The proceeds of this reading,
together with other gifts from friends, enabled her and her mother to spend several
happy months in her beloved France, visiting the scenes and reliving the events
which she used with such effect in her stories. She left an unpublished manuscript
on her travels describing her visits to various scenes and shrines in romantic
France.
While continuing throughout her life to compose in verse, she developed about 1900 a third talent which was to become her major interest,
namely story telling for children. This first took the form of short stories, which
were published in 1903 under the title of Troubadour
Tales. From that time until her death a new story appeared on the average of every
two years. They were not novels but rather long short stories. They took their
subject matter and their atmosphere chiefly from European sources and mainly from
those romantic regions of France, Normandy and Provence. The most successful of her stories were Gabriel
and the Hour Book, The Little Count of Normandy and the Christmas Porrinyer. Three
books appeared after her death, Pepin: d Tale of Twelfth Niyht, Children's
Stories and The Circus Dwarf Stories.
In her poetry Miss Stein was realistic and spontaneous. Her
phrasing and choice of words were remarkable, and she showed great descriptive
power. Her observations of nature were of necessity colored by human emotions and
attitudes, but they remained essentially and even scientifically true, being
sometimes almost microscopic in their accuracy. But she preferred nature in its
higher, more peaceful and joyous manifestations and for the most part ignored the
"tooth and claw" aspects.
As a story teller, however, she chose to live in an unreal world. She was fascinated
by the romantic tales and legends of periods remote in time and of places remote in
space from those in which she lived. In this she was a part of that romantic
movement in literature that in Indiana produced Ben HuG When Kniyhthood Was In Flower,
Monsieur Beaucaire and other popular works. In the case of other writers
this was but a phase through which they passed or was a case of making the supply
meet the demand. But with Miss Stein it was not a passing mood
but amounted almost to a consecration of her powers to the re-creation for modern
readers of the far distant past. Her stories have a vital and imaginative quality
that sustains the interest of the reader. Perhaps one must admit that her books are
about children rather than for children, as they are equally suited for adult
reading. They are not great stories, but they
produce an effect of reality and are true to the circumstances of the times and the
people about whom they were written.
Miss Stein was not one of the top flight authors of Indiana, but her talents were of a high order and her fame has not been
commensurate with the quality of her output. She died at Lafayette on Dec. 11, 1923. Good collections of
her books may be found at the Indiana State Library, the
Lafayette Public Library and the Tippecanoe County
Historical Museum, the last two named having also considerable
collections of clippings, letters, unpublished poems and other memorabilia.
By William Murray Hepburn, Librarian Emeritus, Purdue
University.
- One Way to the Woods. Boston,
1897.
Search "One Way to the Woods" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Among the Trees Again.
Indianapolis, n.d. [1902]
Search "Among the Trees Again" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Troubadour Tales. Boston, n.d.
[1903].
Search "Troubadour Tales" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Gabriel and the Hour Book.
Boston, 1906.
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Close X - A Little Shepherd of Provence.
Boston, 1910.
Search "A Little Shepherd of Provence" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - The Little Count of Normandy; or, the Story of Raoul.
Boston, 1911.
Search "The Little Count of Normandy; or, the Story of Raoul" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - The Christmas Porringer. Boston,
1914.
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Close X - Our Little Norman Cousin of Long Ago; Being the Story of
Normandy in the Time of William the Conqueror.
Boston, 1915.
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Normandy in the Time of William the Conqueror" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Our Little Frankish Cousin of Long Ago; Being the Story of
Rainolf, a Boy in the Court of Charlemagne.
Boston, 1917.
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Rainolf, a Boy in the Court of Charlemagne" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Rosechen and the Wicked Magpie.
Boston, n.d. [1917].
Search "Rosechen and the Wicked Magpie" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Child Songs of Cheer. Boston,
n.d. [1918].
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Close X - Our Little Celtic Cousin of Long Ago; Being the Story of
Ferdiad, a Boy of Ireland, in the Time of Brian Born.
Boston, 1918.
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Ferdiad, a Boy of Ireland, in the Time of Brian Born" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Our Little Crusader Cousin of Long Ago; Being the Story of
Hugh, the Page to King Richard of England, in the Third Crusade.
Boston, 1921.
Search "Our Little Crusader Cousin of Long Ago; Being the Story of
Hugh, the Page to King Richard of England, in the Third Crusade" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - When Fairies Were Friendly.
Boston, 1922.
Search "When Fairies Were Friendly" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Pepin: a Tale of Twelfth Night.
Boston, 1924.
Search "Pepin: a Tale of Twelfth Night" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - Children's Stories.
Boston, n.d. [1926].
Search "Children's Stories" by STEIN, EVALEEN: 1863-1923. in:
Close X - The Circus Dwarf Stories.
Boston, n.d. [1927].
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