author
Charles Francis Stocking
b. 1873
A Midwestern novelist and teacher, he wrote fiction that moved easily between small-town life, moral struggle, and spiritual themes. His books include The Diary of Jean Evarts, Carmen Ariza, and The Mayor of Filbert, showing a career that stretched across the early decades of the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Carmen Ariza
by Charles Francis Stocking
About the author
Born in Freeport, Illinois, in 1873, Charles Francis Stocking built a varied career as an author, teacher, and at one point a mining engineer. Sources on his life agree that he was active in literary and civic circles, and his work was shaped by both newspaper experience and broad study in literature and related subjects.
Stocking wrote a substantial number of novels and other books in the early 1900s. Among the titles most often linked to him are The Diary of Jean Evarts, Carmen Ariza, Thou Israel, and The Mayor of Filbert. His writing seems to have combined storytelling with an interest in character, conscience, and idealism, giving his work a thoughtful but accessible tone.
He died in 1959 after a long life connected to writing and public life in Illinois. While he is not widely remembered today, surviving library records and reprints show that his books continued to circulate well beyond their first publication.