Charles Macomb Flandrau

Charles Macomb Flandrau (1871–1938), was an American author and essayist. Early life and education Flandrau was born on December 9, 1871, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was the son of Judge Charles Eugene Flandrau and his second wife Rebecca Blair Flandrau. He had a younger brother William Blair McClure Flandrau. Charles attended school in St. Paul in his lower years, and went to Massachusetts for college, graduating from Harvard University (1895), where he was a student of Charles Townsend Copeland. He was editor of the Harvard's Monthly and the Advocate. He was a member of The Lampoon, the Hasty Pudding Club and The Delphic Club. Career In his early post-college years, Flandrau taught English literature at Harvard College (1895–1896), tutored overseas (1896), and was an editor for The Youth’s Companion in New York City (1897). Flandrau published his debut novel, Harvard Episodes (1897), which was a collection of stories about contemporary college life. It was said to be “the first realistic description of undergraduate life in American colleges” and its first printing sold out in a few weeks. That success encouraged Flandrau to write a second book about college, The Diary of a Freshman (1901).