Born in Rochester, New York, Charles Warren Stoddard moved to San Francisco with his family in 1855. While still a teenager, Stoddard published poems in San Francisco literary papers. In 1857–59 he was back in New York; in 1864 he visited the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). He probably met SLC in San Francisco in 1864 or 1865, when both were writing for the Californian. Stoddard’s living was principally earned by writing travel literature; his best-known book was South-Sea Idyls (1873). SLC hired Stoddard to accompany him on his 1873–74 trip to England, more for his company than for his services as “personal secretary.” A convert to Roman Catholicism, Stoddard later taught literature at Notre Dame and the Catholic University of America. He continued to correspond with SLC until 1907 at least.