Foster Stockwell

Foster Paul Stockwell (born February 17, 1929, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma) is an American writer, historian and publishing consultant for Chinese publishers and authors.

Biography

He is the son of Francis Olin and Esther Stockwell, two Methodist missionaries who went to Fuzhou, Fujian, in 1929 then to Chengdu, Sichuan, in 1939. He grew up and went to primary school in Chengdu, in southwestern China, in the 1940s.^[1][2]

His father, Olin Stockwell, spent two years in prison in the town of Chongqing as a suspected spy just after the establishment of the People's Republic of China and wrote a book about it: With God in Red China.^[3]

Foster Stockwell attended several universities. He married on December 16, 1955 (his wife's name: Rhoda). They have one child, Norman.^[4]

He is the author of books dealing with subjects as diverse as religion in China, information storage and retrieval, American communes, the exploration of China, genealogical research, misinterpretations of the Bible.^[5][6]

Foster Stockwell has visited China many times in the last decades.^[7]

He has been an editor for two major encyclopedias, a newspaper editor (Berrien County Record, Buchanan, Michigan, 1960–61),^[8] and a publishing consultant for Chinese publishers and authors. He lives in Des Moines, Washington.^[9][10]

Works

• Boyang Zuo, Foster Stockwell (eds), Recent discoveries in Chinese archaeology: 28 articles by Chinese archaeologists describing their excavations, translated by Boyang Zuo, Foster Stockwell, Bowen Tang, Foreign Languages Press, 1984, 107 pages ISBN 0-8351-1162-8 ISBN 978-0-8351-1162-1
• Jichuang Hu, Foster Stockwell, Shuhan Zhao, Chinese economic thought before the seventeenth century, Foreign Languages Press, 1984, 107 pages ISBN 0-8351-1156-3 ISBN 9780835111560
• Mount Huashan, Famous Chinese mountains, Foreign Language Press, 1987, 120 pages ISBN 0-8351-1071-0 ISBN 9780835110716
• Religion in China Today, New World Press, (original 1993, second revised edition 2007), 277 pages ISBN 7-80005-184-6
• Foster Stockwell, Encyclopedia of American Communes, 1663–1963, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1998, 267 pages ISBN 0-7864-0455-8
• Tibet - Myth and Reality, by American historian Foster Stockwell, original source: China Today, April 1998, vol. 47, issue 4
• A History of Information Storage and Retrieval, McFarland & Company, 2001, 208 pages ISBN 0-7864-0840-5
• Highlights in the History of Exploration and Trade in China, Foreign languages Press, 2002, 272 pages ISBN 7-119-03179-1 ISBN 7119031791
• Westerners in China: A History of Exploration and Trade, Ancient Times Through the Present, McFarland, 2003, 187 pages ISBN 978-0-7864-1404-8 (reviewed in China Information October 2003 vol. 17 no. 2 146-147)
• A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research: Resources Alphabetically by Type and Location, McFarland, 2004, 336 pages ISBN 0-7864-1782-X
• The Bible Says: History of Abuses Committed in the Name of the Biblical Text, Lulu Press, 2007, 236 pages ISBN 978-1-4303-2298-6

References

1. Ho Chi Sin, F. Olin and Esther Stockwell 1900 ~ 1992, in Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.
2. Franklin J. Woo, Foster Stockwell's Recent Work Has More Cons Than Pros, Asian Week, October 21, 1994: "Being the son of pre-liberation Methodist China missionaries (F. Olin and Esther Stockwell), the author seems to have inherited his parents' empathy for the Chinese people."
3. Francis Olin Stockwell, With God in Red China: the story of two years in Chinese Communist prisons, Harper, 1953, 256 pages.
4. Stockwell, Foster (Paul) 1929-, HighBeam resaearch:"PERSONAL: Male. Born February 17, 1929, in Bartlesville, OK; son of F. Olin (a missionary) and Esther (a missionary; maiden name, Beck) Stockwell; married December 16, 1955; wife's name Rhoda; children: Norman. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended several universities. Politics: Independent. Religion: United Methodist."
5. About the Author, fosterstockwell.com: "He is also the author of A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research: Resources Alphabetically by Type and Location (2004) and A History of Information Storage and Retrieval (2001)."
6. About the author (2007), Google Books: [...] Among the books he has written are the Encyclopedia of American Communes, 1663-1963 (1998), Westerners in China (2003), and A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research (2004)."
7. Professor Bill Willmott, past president of the New Zealand China Friendship Society, in Tibet - Myth and Reality: "About the Author: Foster Stockwell is an American writer who grew up as the son of missionaries in southwestern China (Chengdu) near Tibet, and has visited China many times in recent years."
8. Stockwell, Foster (Paul) 1929-, HighBeam research.
9. About the author (2007), Google books: "Foster Stockwell has been an editor for two major encyclopedias, a newspaper editor and a consultant for Chinese publishers and authors."
10. About the Author, fosterstockwell.com: "He lives in Des Moines, Washington."