One of Stevens's predecessors in his Hawaii post was Luther Severance, a friend and political mentor to Stevens who had been the editor of the Kennebec Journal for 25 years when he was appointed United States Minister to Hawaii in 1850. An ardent Annexationist, Severance was later a columnist for the newspaper under Stevens's and Blaine's ownership.[2]
Harper's Magazine called Stevens's work on the Swedish King "a very full and capable presentation of the genius and work" of the monarch. Although the former newspaper editor's writing style was "stiff, ungraceful and a little obscure", the biography benefitted from "the richness and authenticity of the materials he has collected."[4]
Stevens's wife Mary Lowell (Smith) Leavitt was the daughter of Capt. Daniel Smith and Dorcas (Lowell) Smith of Hallowell, Maine, a descendant of Percival Lowell, progenitor of Boston's Lowell family. [5]
