Bio:Esther Carlson

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Esther (Essie) Carlson graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1938, where she had worked on the newspaper, been a member of "Quill and Scroll" and the "Press Convention", and been an officer of the Nature Club. She attended Grinnell College, where she was a member of the yearbook editorial staff and also the Press Club. She later attended the Univ. of Wisconsin (dates unknown). In the early 1940s, she followed childhood friend, and author, Merle Miller to New York City, where she "embraced a Bohemian existence", including reading poetry in Greenwich Village, while paying the rent as a freelance copywriter. In 1945, she wrote scripts for the Kate Smith radio show, which she described as "tripe of the sheerest sort."

In New York, James Baldwin slept on Essie's couch, and Richard Wright was so enchanted by her writing that he arranged for her to meet other prominent writers at a summer workshop in Vermont. There she authored the 1949 novel "Moon Over the Back Fence," a whimsical tale of a girl on summer vacation who makes an imaginary friend. (Note: This might be an inaccurate description referring to the Middlebury College "Bread Loaf Writers' Conference", CT, that she attended in 1946.) Her 1947 short story "Museum Piece" is included, in a modified form (e.g., different ending), in "Moon Over the Back Fence".

Essie married Robert (Bob) Bolster, probably in the late 1940s, but continued to write as Esther Carlson. Esther and Bob are reported to have been living in Brooklyn in 1948, in Rochester in 1949, and at 145 Portland Road in Highlands, NJ about 1950. In the 1950s, Esther taught 6th grade at Highlands Elementary and also worked for the ad agency Young & Rubicam in New York. In Highlands she served as secretary (and briefly president) of the Twin Lights Historical Society in Highlands NJ, and was chairwoman of the Twin Lights Commission, which oversaw the handoff of the Twin Lights Lighthouse from the federal government to the state in 1962. She also founded the American Littoral Society's quarterly Underwater Naturalist in 1962.

(Sources: The Facebook page and the Iowa library reference linked on Carlson's Summary Bibliography page. The FictionMags entry for her.)

Some sources, based on listings in "Partners in Wonder" and "Fantasy & Science Fiction", include suggestions that "Esther Carlson" may be an alias for another author. But the family of the late Carlson has confirmed to us that this is her birth name, and the works we list by her are, in fact, by her. Much of the bio above is extracted from details from her extended family. Chavey 03:17, 24 April 2022 (EDT)