The Miss Stone Affair

April 7, 2003
Zooming in on a historical footnote, the kidnapping of an American missionary by Macedonian revolutionaries in 1901, Carpenter discovers a Byronic adventure and an early lesson in the perils of international power for the U.S. Ellen Stone was a committed evangelical missionary and an indomitable adventurer who became, says Carpenter, "a law unto herself" in the unstable and newly autonomous Bulgaria, which Carpenter describes as "a nominal Ottoman principality, an American-style democracy, and a Russian client state." In Macedonia, ethnic Bulgarians still ruled by Turks formed a guerrilla resistance, partly financed by brigandage. A rogue band of these revolutionaries seized Stone and another hostage, a local Protestant convert, who was five months pregnant. American involvement was delayed by William McKinley's assassination, just days after the abduction. But Stone's predicament naturally lent itself to sensational media coverage and soon became a cause célèbre, prompting a fund-raising drive to collect the hefty ransom demanded by her captors. With America's limited diplomatic presence in the Balkans, the tangled political agendas of the regional leaders, and the secrecy of the Macedonian guerrillas, the negotiations involved murky, back-channel dealings and hidden subtexts, which Carpenter skillfully delineates. Carpenter—a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, former senior editor of the Village Voice,
and author of Mob Girl—might have deepened her exploration of the historical issues at stake: the consequences of Ottoman decline and American ascendance. She might even have indulged the melodramatic potential of the tale more. Still, it's a gripping yarn, even in her straightforward account. Photos, map. Agent, Esther Newberg.