Staman, A. Louise

PERSONAL:

Married E. Michael Staman (a professor); children: Laura, Karen, Jeanette. Education: Kent State University, B.A.; University of Illinois, M.A. (French); Old Dominion University, M.A. (humanities); also studied in Paris, France, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Macon, GA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and researcher. Has also taught college-level French and served as a tutor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grand prize winner, Jekyll Island Millennium Time Capsule Contest, for the poem "Future, Past and Present"; Illuminati Press of Miami University of Middletown Writing Competition winner, 2006, for poem "Clippings"; Honorable Mention, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, 2006, for poem "My Five Breasts"; Eric Hoffer Award for Books, and Gold in Regional Award, "IPPY" Independent Publisher Book Awards, both 2007, both for Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia's Feisty Mrs. Felton, First Woman Senator of the United States.

WRITINGS:

With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Greed, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoël, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia's Feisty Mrs. Felton, First Woman Senator of the United States, Tiger Iron Press (Macon, GA), 2006.

Rupert and the Bag (children's book), illustrated by Rich Adams, Tiger Iron Press (Macon, GA), 2006.

With the Stroke of a Pen has been translated into French.

Also author of Home Grown Georgia Poems. Contributor to Under My Skin, a poetry anthology.

SIDELIGHTS:

A. Louise Staman is the author of With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Greed, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoël. Using personal papers, court documents, and archival materials unsealed by the French government, Staman traces the life of the Belgian-born Denoël, who arrived in Paris in 1926 and opened his publishing house two years later. He recruited some of the finest writers of the era, including Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Antonin Artaud, and Jean Genet. When the Nazis occupied France, Denoël began publishing anti-Semitic works while also promoting the efforts of Elsa Triolet, a Jewish author who won the Prix Goncourt. Denoël was shot to death on December 2, 1945; the crime was never officially solved, although robbery did appear to be the motive. According to Library Journal critic Mary Salony, "Staman's report of the investigation reveals a tale of crime, betrayal, and coverup," and a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that the author "makes a convincing argument that Denoel was killed by intimates who wanted both to gain his publishing house and shut his mouth for good." In the words of Booklist critic Elsa Gaztambide, With the Stroke of a Pen "is a spectacular example of riveting research."

Staman is also the author of Loosening Corsets: The Heroic Life of Georgia's Feisty Mrs. Felton, First Woman Senator of the United States, a biography of Rebecca Latimer Felton, a journalist, suffragist, and reformer who was sworn in to the U.S. Senate in 1922 at the age of eighty-seven.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2002, Elsa Gaztambide, review of With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Greed, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoël, p. 550.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2002, review of With the Stroke of a Pen, p. 1290.

Library Journal, October 1, 2002, Mary Salony, review of With the Stroke of a Pen, p. 114.

Publishers Weekly, October 28, 2002, review of With the Stroke of a Pen, p. 61.

ONLINE

A. Louise Staman Home Page,http://www.alouisestaman.com (April 20, 2007).

Sweet Briar College,http://www.sbc.edu/ (February 22, 2007), Jennifer McManamay, "Biographer Brings Remarkable Story of First Woman in U.S. Senate to Sweet Briar."