STEPHEN WARREN MEADER PAPERS

de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
The University of Southern Mississippi

	Creator:	Stephen Warren Meader
	Title:	DG0685
	Dates:	1960-1997
	Quantity:	0.60 cubic feet (2 boxes)
	Identification:	DG0685

Biographical Note

Stephen Warren Meader was born on May 2, 1892, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Walter Sidney Meader, a teacher at a Quaker school, and his wife, Lucy (Hawkes) Meader. Walter Meader gave up teaching when Stephen was twelve and moved the family to rural New Hampshire where he worked as a timber cutter. The outdoor life of the lumber camp later provided rich material for Meader's writing. He graduated from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 1913, and worked as a social worker with the Children's Aid Society and the Big Brother Movement in Newark, New Jersey, where he learned about the interests and needs of boys. Meader married Elizabeth Hoyt in 1916 and worked at various publishing jobs while writing his first novel, The Black Buccaneer (1920).

The success of Meader's first book convinced him to pursue children's writing. He drew on his boyhood in New Hampshire for his early books, but eventually produced works set in locales across the United States. Meader specialized in fast-paced adventure, mystery, and war stories for adolescent boys, many set in periods of American expansion and war. He also produced sports and occupational stories about young boys facing problems and decisions in their growth into adulthood. Meader wrote forty-four books over a fifty-year period while working for several publishing houses and the advertising firm of N. W. Ayer & Son of Philadelphia. He retired to Cape May, New Jersey, in 1957, where his proximity to the ocean motivated him to write several sea stories. Active in the Society of Friends, Meader made Quaker characters prominent in some later unpublished works. Stephen Meader died on July 18, 1977.

Sources:
Something About the Author, ed. Anne Commire (Detroit: Gale Research, 1971), 1:153.
Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, ed. Laura Standley Berger, 4th ed. (Detroit: St. James Press, 1995), 654-656.
Typescript of A Family Memoir, Personal Papers, Stephen Warren Meader Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

Scope and Content Note

The Stephen Warren Meader Papers contain manuscripts, typescripts, galleys, page proofs, notes, and correspondence created and accumulated by Stephen Warren Meader and his son, John H. Meader, between 1960 and 1997. Meader's papers were created from his composition of seven published books and three unpublished works. The material is organized into three series: books, unpublished works, and personal papers.

The papers in the books series are arranged alphabetically by title. They consist of typescripts, galleys, and page proofs of the last seven novels that Stephen Meader published during his literary career.

The papers in the unpublished works series are arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each book is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known. Stephen Meader's unpublished works probably date from the 1970s. The material for The Freedom Trail, a story about New Jersey high school basketball players retracing Quaker stations of the Underground Railroad, contains a manuscript for The Freedom Book of Gideon Jones, a fictional text prominently featured in the story.

The personal papers series includes a typescript of a family memoir by Stephen Meader that is rich in information about his family and early life. The pieces of correspondence with the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection were selected and photocopied from the correspondence file of the de Grummond Collection because they provide information on the provenance of these materials and the existence of other manuscripts. They are arranged chronologically.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Use

Noncirculating; available for research.

Copyright Restrictions

The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.

Related Material

For illustrations for A Blow for Liberty, see Victor Mays Papers (DG0684). For other material, see Stephen W. Meader Papers, Children's Literature Research Collection, University of Minnesota (CLRC-164)

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item and cite the series), Stephen Warren Meader Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

Provenance

These papers were donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries by Stephen W. Meader and his son, John H. Meader, on May 5, 1966 and October 4, 1996, respectively

Processing Information

Processed by Hans Rasmussen, November 2001. Encoded into EAD Version 1.0 by Danielle L. Bishop. This finding aid is the product of a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Container Listing

Contact:
The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
The University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive, #5148
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
(601) 266-4349
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