In the last years of his life, Stephen Etnier worked extensively on an autobiography. Given the working title of Overworked Guardian Angel (based on his very active life and the several close-calls with death he'd experienced), the book took shape through interviews conducted first by writer Virginia Wright and later by Jean Cole, who assembled a manuscript from the interview transcripts and other sources.

In 2009, the artist's son John arranged for OCR transcription of the typewritten first draft. After completing editing, photo scanning and design work he printed a limited edition of the book for distribution to family members. It includes roughly 200 photographs and painting reproductions.

Stephen Etnier's life story is a full, rich and intriguing one, spanning the first eight decades of the 20th century. Etnier was an artist, seafarer, aviator, bon vivant, lothario and more.

The artist's family is seeking wider publication of this book. Interested parties: those who might be able to publish a revised version of Overworked Guardian Angel as a trade edition, are urged to contact us for more information.

PLEASE NOTE: no copies of Overworked Guardian Angel are available for sale. Please don't contact us in that regard.

A webpage showing sample pages
and a pdf excerpt from the limited-edition is here.

A text excerpt from the book,
covering the WWII years, is available here.

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