author
Caroline Abbot Stanley
1849–1919
Best known for a Civil War novel that became a regional bestseller, this Missouri writer drew on local history and memory to tell dramatic, human stories. Before turning fully to literature, she also built a substantial career in education.
2 Audiobooks
A Modern Madonna
by Caroline Abbot Stanley
The First Church's Christmas barrel
by Caroline Abbot Stanley
About the author
Caroline Abbot Stanley was an American author born on August 16, 1849, in Missouri. She is chiefly remembered for Order No. 11 (1904), a Civil War novel centered on the forced evacuation of parts of western Missouri; contemporary reference sources describe it as her best-known work and a regional bestseller.
Available biographical sources also show that she spent many years in education before focusing on writing. She studied in Kalamazoo, Michigan, worked as a teacher and later as a principal at the Kalamazoo Training School, and then left school work in the 1890s to devote herself more fully to literature.
She died on January 13, 1919. Although not widely known today, her work remains of interest to readers drawn to historical fiction rooted in Missouri history and to early women writers of the American Midwest.