author
Blanche Willis Howard
1847–1898
An American novelist and journalist who built a literary life between Maine and Germany, she was admired for fiction that moved from sentimental storytelling toward sharper social realism. Her best-known work, One Summer, helped establish her reputation on both sides of the Atlantic.
1 Audiobook
One Year Abroad
by Blanche Willis Howard
About the author
Born in Bangor, Maine, in 1847, Blanche Willis Howard grew up in New England and began publishing fiction while still a young woman. Her early success came with One Summer in 1875, a novel praised for its vivid setting and emotional intelligence.
Much of her working life unfolded in Germany, especially in Stuttgart, where she wrote, taught, and moved in expatriate literary circles. Her novels are often noted for tracing a path from sentimental fiction toward realism, and for engaging with questions about women's independence and modern social life.
Howard continued writing through the 1880s and 1890s and later married Julius von Teuffel, after which she was sometimes identified as Blanche Willis Howard von Teuffel. She died in Germany in 1898, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both her American roots and her cosmopolitan life abroad.