author
Evelyn Saxton
A lively observer of life on the Isthmus, this early 20th-century writer turned Panama Canal–era experiences into vivid, often humorous stories. Her work offers a firsthand feel for a place in the middle of enormous change.
1 Audiobook
Droll stories of Isthmian life
by Evelyn Saxton
About the author
Little is firmly documented about Evelyn Saxton herself, but her surviving work points to an American writer with direct experience of Panama during the years of canal construction.
She is best known for Droll Stories of Isthmian Life, published in 1914. The book draws on life in and around Panama and the Canal Zone, mixing travel writing, social observation, and comic storytelling in a way that makes everyday encounters feel immediate and memorable.
Modern library and public-domain sources describe her as an American woman who went to Panama and wrote about conditions there, including the work of doctors and nurses. Even where the details of her life remain hard to trace, her writing still stands out for its sense of place and for the human, often amused eye she brought to a remarkable moment in history.