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Louise Allender Stinetorf Collection

 Collection
Identifier: FMS-36

Scope and Contents

The Stinetorf Collection consists of five scrapbooks assembled by Stinetorf, containing correspondence with publishers, editors, and agents, fan mail, contrasts, reviews, and other material dealing with her writings, along with a number of book an short story manuscripts. Also included are copies of many of her short stories and poems. There are a few photographs, apparently taken for publicity purposes in the 1950s. The earliest material dates from 1940, the latest from about 1966.

Dates

  • 1940-1966

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open without restriction

Conditions Governing Use

Some materials may be protected by copyright. Permission to reproduce and to publish for commercial purposes must be requested from the Archivist.

Biographical or Historical Information

Louise Allender Stinetorf was an Earlham alumnus, Quaker, and well-known writer of books for children, mostly on religious themes. This collection reflects her literary career from about 1940 into the 1960s. Louise Allender was born in Randolph County, Indiana, February 4, 1900, and graduated from Ridgeville High School there. In 1919, she married Roscoe Stinetorf of Richmond, Indiana. After their marriage, both enrolled at Earlham. She received the A.B. degree in 1925, he in 1929. After leaving Earlham, while Roscoe Stinetorf was doing graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, she was on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee, focusing on peace work in the United States. Roscoe and Laouise Stinetorf were divorced in 1937. She retained the name Stinetorf forĀ  professional and literary work. After her divorce, Louise Stinetorf spent two years as a missionary in Palestine, and taught for a time at the Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago. She then married Dr. Henry L. Wilson of Topanga, California, who died in 1955. She afterwards moved to Celina, Ohio, where she lived until moving to Richmond, Indiana, about 1980. She died in Richmond, Nov. 22, 1992. Louise Stinetorf began contributing poetry to Quaker journals in the 1920s. She began writing prose in 1939. Her first books, Children of North Africa, appeared in 1943. Her best-known work was White Witch Doctor, a novel about a woman missionary physician in Africa that was a national best-seller and was made into a Hollywood movie. She was the author of a number of other books, along with about two hundred short stories and several hundred published poems. Her work focused on the adventures of missionaries, especially in Africa, aiming, in her words, "to point up the resemblance between the people with whom the missionaries work and the rest of mankind." Much of it was intended for a youthful audience.

Note written by

Extent

4 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Method of Acquisition

Gift, Louise Allender Stinetorf, September 1992; Additional material from a niece, Jo Smith, in 1993.

Separated Materials

Books received were removed and separately catalogued. Copies of Stinetorf's books can be found in the Earlham Authors Collection in the College Archives.

Title
Archon Finding Aid Title
Description rules
Other Unmapped
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
und

Repository Details

Part of the Friends Collection and Earlham College Archives Repository

Contact:
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