Charles M. Flandrau

Charles M. Flandrau (December 9, 1871-March 29, 1938) attended school in St. Paul, Minnesota, his hometown, and then attended Harvard, graduating in 1895. His father was lawyer Charles Eugene Flandrau, who served on several councils and in several important courts. The junior Charles Flandrau, however, got along better with his mother, who influenced his interest in books. After graduating from Harvard, Flandrau taught literature there for a year before tutoring overseas and then editing The Youth’s Companion in New York. Eventually resettling in St. Paul, Flandrau wrote articles for various St. Paul publications and mentored younger writers in the Nimbus Club, which was an artists’ club in the city.

Flandrau’s first novel, Harvard Episodes, described college life from the inside as it actually was. The book was successful, and Flandrau wrote a second book about college called the Diary of a Freshman. His best-known book is one of travel, describing Flandrau’s experiences on his brother’s coffee plantation in Mexico. Flandrau wrote several other books as well, but his later works are not considered as well-written as his earlier work. After his mother died, Flandrau’s writing and socializing petered out, and he lived a solitary life, splitting his time between St. Paul, Spain, and France. In 2004, author Larry Haeg published a biography of Charles M. Flandrau, comparing him with two other 20^th century Minnesotan authors, Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald.