Howard, Blanche (1847 - 1898)

Genre: General Fiction

Born in Bangor, Blanche Willis Howard was a popular novelist who wrote romantic tales and several travel books. In 1875, she published her first novel, One Summer, which had a Maine setting. The popularity of the novel gave Howard name recognition and enabled her to obtain an assignment from the Boston Evening Transcript.

She toured Europe and wrote articles about travel and local customs. With the exception of returning to the United States for visits with her family and to meet with her American publishers, she remained in Stuttgart, Germany, where she continued to write and also studied music, philosophy, and science.

Documents in the Maine Women Writers Collection suggest she also conducted some type of finishing school for American girls and young women.

In 1890 she married Dr. Julius von Teuffel, a physician, and she became the Baroness von Teuffel.

Selected Bibliography

• One Summer (1875)
• One Year Abroad (1877)
• Aunt Serena (1881)
• Guenn, A Wave on the Breton Coast (1884)
• Aulnay Tower (1885)
• Tony the Maid, A Novelette (1887)
• The Open Door (1889)
• A Battle and a Boy; A Story for Young People (1892)
• A Fellowe and His Wife (1892)
• No Heroes (1893)
• Seven on the Highway (1897)
• Dionysius the Weaver's Heart's Dearest (1899)
• The Garden of Eden (1900)
• The Humming Top, Or Debt and Credit in the Next World (1890), translation of a German story by Theobald Gross