Woman of the Century/Blanche Willis H. Von Teuffel

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2295720Woman of the Century — Blanche Willis H. Von Teuffel

VON TEUFFEL, Mrs. Blanche Willis Howard, author, born in Bangor, Me., in 1851. She is widely known by her maiden name Blanche Willis Howard, which has been signed to all of her work. She received a liberal education and is a graduate of the high school in Bangor. BLANCHE WILLIS HOWARD VON TEUFFEL. She showed her literary bent at an early age, and quietly, and without other attempts or disheartening failures, she published her novel, "One Summer" (Boston, 1875), and took her place among the foremost novelists of the day. Desiring to enlarge her world, she determined to go abroad for travel, study and observation. With a commission as correspondent of the Boston "Transcript" she went to Stuttgart, Germany, where she has since made her home. In that city she occupied a high social position and received and chaperoned young American women, who were studying art, music and languages. She there became the wife, in 1890, of Dr. Von Teuffel, a physician of the German court, a man of wealth and social standing. Her life since marriage has been a busy one. She is a model housekeeper, and she is at once employed in writing a novel, keeping house for a large family of nephews and nieces, and supervising the translation of one of her books into French, German and Italian, besides a number of other mental and physical activities. In 1877 she published her book of travel, "One Year Abroad." Her other books are "Aunt Serena" (Boston, 1881), "Guenn" (1883), "Aulnay Tower" (1885), "The Open Door" (1889), and "A Fellow and His Wife" (1891). All her books have passed through large editions in the United States, and most of them have been published in the various European languages. Mrs. Von Teuffel is a woman of cheerful and charitable disposition, and her life is full of good deeds. Her generosity and self-sacrifice are immeasurable, and only her strong physical powers enable her to keep up her numerous occupations. She is fond of dress and society, and in the high social circles in which she moves in Stuttgart she is a woman of note. Her husband encourages her in her literary work and is proud of the position she holds in the literary world. Their union is one of the idyllic kind, and her happy life and pleasant surroundings since marriage have done much to stimulate her literary activity.