Edward Owings Towne Explained

Edward Owings Towne
Birth Date:February 19, 1859 or 1860
Birth Place:Pella, Iowa, U.S.
Death Date:March 6, 1938
Occupation:Lawyer, playwright
Notable Works:"The Madonna in Chains"
Education:Iowa Central University
Birth Name:Edward Owings Towne, Jr.
Spouse:Sara Johnston Cooper

Edward Owings Towne, Jr. (February 19, 1859[1] or February 19, 1860 – March 6, 1938) was an American lawyer in Chicago, who became a writer. He wrote poems, stories, plays, and comedies.[2]

Early life and education

He was born on either February 19, 1859 or February 19, 1860 in Pella, Iowa. His father, Rev. E. O. Towne (died 1874),[3] established Iowa Central University. His father was noted in "Souvenir History of Pella, Iowa (1847–1922)," as a land agent who greeted people arriving by covered wagon.[4]

Towne, Jr. studied at Iowa Central University.

Career

Towne wrote Aphorisms of the Three Threes (1887).[5] He wrote The completion of the spire, and other poems (1889).[6] He wrote the play By Wits Outwitted (1897).[7] He wrote Ideals of an Idol-breaker; A Poem of the New Philosophy (1913).[8] He wrote Philosophy of Jesus; A Narrative of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (1928).[9] [10] He wrote Scientific Money, a Cure for Panics and Financial Depressions (1930).[11]

Towne wrote the 1895 play Other People's Money, which was performed at Hoyt's Theatre in New York City the same year.[12] [13] He also wrote A Little Drunkardess, A Masked Battery, and Literary Duet By Wits Outwitted, was staged in Cleveland, Ohio in 1893 and was accompanied by A Glimpse of Paradise by Frank S. Pixley.[14] [15] Tell Taylor starred in the show. His play For Sweet Charity's Sake won him a thousand dollar prize in a Best One Act play competition circa 1895 and his play By Wits Outwitted ran for at least two years.[16] His story "The Madonna in Chains" was adapted into the 1923 film The Women in Chains.[17]

He was found guilty of conspiring to wreck the Lumbermen's Building and Loan Association in October 1898, and was fined US $1,500 and sentenced to serve an indeterminate sentence time in Joliet Prison (now Joliet Correctional Center).[18]

He died on March 6, 1938.

In 2004 a family in Vista, California found a shoebox full of family memorabilia including photographs, letters, and other documents from E. O. Towne and his family.[19] He corresponded with Charles Eastwick Smith, which is part of the "Charles Eastwick Smith letters from botanists" archives at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.[20]

Personal life and family

Towne married Sara Johnston Cooper in 1889. Their son Fenimore Cooper Towne was born and died at the family home in 1918 of sepsis poisoning[21] at the age of 25.

Book publications

Screenplay and playwright work

Stage playwright

Filmography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dayton . Arthur S. . Edward Owings Towne . 2023-04-20 . College of Law, West Virginia University.
  2. Book: The Descendants of William Towne: Who Came to America on Or about 1630 and Settled in Salem, Mass. April 20, 1901. E. E. Towne. 9780598487834 . Google Books.
  3. News: August 28, 1874 . Rev. E. O. Towne . . GenealogyTrails.com.
  4. Book: Murphy, Jeff . Souvenir History of Pella, Iowa (1847–1922) . Booster Press . 1922 . Pella, Iowa . Iowa Biographies Project.
  5. Book: Aphorisms of the Three Threes . Charles H. Kerr and Company . 1887 . University of Pennsylvania.
  6. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . The Completion of the Spire and Other Poems . 1889 . Mid-continent Publishing Company . en.
  7. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . By Wits Outwitted . 1897 . en.
  8. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . Ideals of an Idol-breaker ...: A Poem of the New Philosophy ... . 1913 . en.
  9. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . The Philosophy of Jesus: A Nar[r]ative of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Arranged from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, as Newly Translated Into Modern English ]. 1928 . New Era Book Corporation . en.
  10. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . The Philosophy of Jesus: A Narrative of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth . 2012-03-01 . Literary Licensing, LLC . 978-1-258-26146-7 . en.
  11. Book: Towne, Edward Owings . Scientific Money, a Cure for Panics and Financial Depressions . 1930 . New Era Book Corporation . en.
  12. News: 1895-08-20 . A Comic Chicago Play; " Other People's Money," by Edward Owings Towne. Performed in Hoyt's Theatre Last Night. . en-US . . 2023-04-20 . 0362-4331.
  13. Web site: Edward Owings Towne . Broadway Cast & Staff; IBDB.
  14. Web site: A Play in one act [electronic resource] : A glimpse of paradise by Mr. Frank S. Pixley., by Ont.) Grand Opera House (Hamilton The Online Books Page ]. 2023-04-20 . onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu.
  15. Web site: 1893 . The New York Clipper Annual (1893) . 2023-04-20 . Columbia University Libraries . 7.
  16. Handy . Moses P . 1895 . Literary Chicago . . Frank A. Munsey & Company . 12 . 84 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230421231542/https://books.google.com/books/edition/Munsey_s_Magazine_for/LwIPAQAAIAAJ. live . April 21, 2023.
  17. Web site: The Woman in Chains . www.tcm.com.
  18. News: 1898-10-15 . Found Guilty . True Republican . 2023-04-20.
  19. Web site: Hyatt . Valari . November 16, 2009 . Family story found in shoebox . 2023-04-20 . Utica Observer Dispatch . en-US.
  20. Web site: Collection: Charles Eastwick Smith letters from botanists . ArchivesSpace Public Interface, Drexel University.
  21. News: 1918-01-09 . Deaths of the Week . New York Clipper . 2023-04-20.

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