Evelyn Wells (7 April 1899 – 6 September 1984) was a 20th-century American biographer and author most known for her biographies of the

ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

royals of the

18th dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

Nefertiti Nefertiti () () was a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal Wife, great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious poli ...

and

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...

Biography

Evelyn Minerva Wells was born 7 April 1899 in Illinois to unknown parents. She was adopted by William James Wells and his wife, Edith Alice Squire by June, 1900. The family lived in the Chicago area until about 1905, when they moved to Ashland, Oregon, and then to San Jose, California. While in the Chicago area (Palos), the family had become friends with

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism. In his best-known book ...

and his wife, Ellen. Around 1918, young Evelyn, armed with a letter from Veblen's divorced wife, went to

Fremont Older Fremont Older (August 30, 1856 – March 3, 1935) was a newspaperman and editor in San Francisco, California for nearly 50 years and an important activist in the progressive social and political life of the era and area. He is best known for ...

seeking work. He asked instead that she do a piece on being an 18-year-old girl, which she promptly produced, after which she began working with Older at the

San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulleti ...

, and was even part of his household for a while. During her tenure with the San Francisco Call, she interviewed Martha Jane "Patty" Reed Lewis of the

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California interim government, 1846-1850, California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent ...

and wrote a series of articles in 1919 entitled "The Tragedy of Donner Lake." She also wrote serials about Lola Montez, Sarah Althea Hill, and other early California personalities. She married Loyal James Podesta (1900–1987), the son of a well-known San Francisco florist, about 1925, and had two children with him. She retained her maiden name in her many books, though she is referred to in a few accounts as Evelyn Wells Podesta. She appears to have separated from her husband by 1950, when she purchased a home in New York for herself and her two children. In addition to the books listed below, she also edited Betty Martin's best-selling "Miracle at Carville" (Doubleday, 1950) and its sequel, "No One Must Ever Know" (Doubleday, 1959). In 1977, she travelled with "lifelong friend" Nathalia Walker Richmond to Colorado to revisit the childhood home of Nathalia (supposedly last living daughter of

John Brisben Walker John Brisben Walker (September 10, 1847 – July 7, 1931) was a magazine publisher and automobile entrepreneur in the United States. In his later years, he was a resident of Jefferson County, Colorado. Biography Walker was born on September ...

) at Mt. Falcon, near Morrison, Colorado. She died 6 September 1984 in Seattle, Washington.Washington Death Index, 1940-1996, ancestry.com

Bibliography

*1936 ''

, A Biography'' *1939 ''Champagne Days of San Francisco'' *1940 ''Men at their Worst'' (with Leo Stanley) *1946 ''What to Name the Baby'' *1947 ''Jed Blaine's Woman'' *1949 ''The Forty Niners'' (with Harry C. Peterson) *1951 ''Life Starts Today'' *1953 ''The Gentle Kingdom of Giacomo'' *1964 ''

'' *1964 ''

Carlos P. Romulo Carlos Peña Romulo Sr. (January 14, 1899 – December 15, 1985) was a Filipino people, Filipino diplomat, statesman, soldier, journalist and author. He was a co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, a general in the US Army and the Phi ...

: Voice of Freedom'' *1967 ''A City for St. Francis'' *1969 ''

'' *1974 ''I Am Thinking of Kelda''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Evelyn 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 1899 births 1984 deaths Writers from Illinois 20th-century American women writers American adoptees