NORWAY – A new link on the Norway Memorial Library Web page may increase the fame of author C.A. Stephens, who did much of his writing in Norway and had thousands of fans across the United States a century ago.

Two locals – Larry Glatz and Charles Longley – have collaborated to put a bibliography of Stephens’ work online. Longley, going several hundred steps further, is working on creating a massive bibliography of every writer who has lived in Oxford County. The sites are linked to the library’s Web page.

The highlighted author in Longley’s bibliography is Stephens, and some of his stories are now available on the Internet at www.norway.lib.me.us/cas.htm.

“He’s our most well-known local writer,” Glatz said recently from his office in Norway where he works for a Medicare advocacy center. As a side interest, Glatz has became an expert on Stephens and is president of the group, “Friends of C.A. Stephens.”

Charles Asbury Stephens was born in 1844 and after making lots of money, lived in a mansion near Norway Lake. Many avid readers eagerly followed his serial tales of children having innumerable adventures. Today, his fans number about 150, and they gather once a year in Norway.

“It’s not that he’s a great writer, he’s pretty mediocre, frankly,” Glatz said, laughing briefly. “I’m interested in popular culture in the 19th century before TV and the radio, in what people did. They read an awful lot. Almost all families got two or three newspapers or magazines.”

One of the magazines with the largest circulation in Stephens’ time was The Youth’s Companion. And Stephens wrote for the magazine for 60 years. The magazine folded in 1926 with the advent of radio and the movies, Glatz said. Stephens died five years later.

“He primarily wrote for adolescent males, but his most memorable characters were feisty young women,” Glatz said. “Frankly, the stories I enjoy the most were the feisty girl characters. The boys go out into the woods, find an animal, whack it on athe head, and say, “‘Whoa, that’s a big bear.'”

Stephens, who was somewhat of a recluse and spent a lot of time in his home laboratory, once owned the land that is now the lake’s public beach. His nearby home was torn down later, with the proceeds of the land sale given to Norway’s hospital named after Stephens.

The new C.A. Stephens site will help preserve one aspect of the town’s history, Glatz said, the part captured ddddby its story tellers and writers.

“We don’t want it to pass away particularly because it is so important to Norway’s early years. These people were like pop stars locally,” Glatz said, referring to Stephens and another Norway writer who was somewhat like a predecessor of Stephen King, Sylvanus Cobb Jr.

SIDE BAR:

Norway native listing every published writer in county

NORWAY – After three years, Charles Longley has reached the letter F.

Longley, curator of artifacts at the Norway Historical Society and a former Boston Public Library curator, is working on an extensive bibliography for every published writer who has lived in Oxford County.

The index includes writers from a recently published humorist to a woman who kept cemetery records for Albany Township.

“The bibliography tends to identify Oxford County residents, whether they’ve always lived here or come in from outside but spent a considerable amount of time in the state, or are favorite sons, important people born here who have gone outside of the state but who have written and published,” Longley said in his careful way.

One of these “favorite sons,” is Addison Verrill who was born in Greenwood and eventually became an important American zoologist, founding the study of zoology at Yale University. Verrill’s work is not yet listed in the bibliography.

Longley has been searching online databases to identify as many writers as he can. He started with a bibliography published in 1898 of Maine writers, and he also searches catalogs of libraries in the state to compile lists of authors’ works. The Waterboro Public Library already has created an index for Maine writers, which is accessible on its Web page.

Currently, only writers with last names beginning with the letters A through F, and the letter S, have their works listed on the Web, which can be accessed through the ‘Reference Department’ link at www.norway.lib.me.us. There are no live links to online published works.

But if you were inclined to read what a culinary specialist called Anna Barrows of Fryeburg had to say about eggs, you could find her 1890 book, “Eggs: Facts and Fancies about Them,” at the University of New England, call number WCC TX745.B377e.

Norway Memorial Library Director Ann Siekman said the bibliography “is an amazing undertaking by Charles.”

One of the more current authors Longley plans to list is Dr. Harry L. Harper, a former physician at Stephens Memorial Hospital who published a memoir in 1999 about his years treating patients called, “Doctor Iodine Asks ‘Any Questions?'”

Longley, who was born in Norway and returned here after retiring, said he was inspired to create the bibliography after contemplating what contribution would be suitable to recognize the bicentennial of Oxford County.

“Because of my work at the historical society, I became aware of how much interesting information was available that people didn’t know about,” Longley said.

The bibliography is designed to help make this information more available to researchers, and it lists information about published works as well as the locations where they can be found.