Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen (September 6, 1916 – February 7, 1995) was an American nurse and professor of nursing at West Virginia University Institute of Technology. She wrote

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

novels under the pseudonyms Christabel and Kathleen Westcott, respectively.

Early life and nursing career

Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen was born on September 6, 1916 in

Oak Hill, West Virginia Oak Hill is a city in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States and is the primary city within the Oak Hill, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. The micropolitan area is also included in the Beckley-Oak Hill, WV Combined Statistical Area. The ...

, the daughter of Charles Earl Campbell, an auto mechanic, and Macie Boothe. She was raised and attended school in West New York, New Jersey. She earned a nursing diploma from New York's Somerset Hospital in 1938, a bachelor's degree in nursing education from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in 1954, and a master's degree in nursing from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1959. After working as a nurse in various hospitals in New Jersey and New York since 1938, she became a professor of nursing at West Virginia University Institute of Technology in 1971."Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen." ''Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors'', Gale, 2002. ''Gale Literature Resource Center''. Retrieved December 21, 2021.

Writing

Abrahamsen began writing "in earnest" in 1968, describing the appeal of science fiction by commenting that "after many years of graduate study and research it was a pleasure to write something which needed absolutely no documentation". She said she took the pen name Christabel from "a fortune telling book... it means 'good luck' and success." Her first two works were the Veltakin series of

planetary romance Planetary romance is a subgenre of science fiction in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place ag ...

s, ''Manalacor of Veltakin'' and ''The Cruachan and the Killane.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

'' describes her work as "written in a style that crosses the romance genre with boys' fiction".

Psychic phenomena A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

play a significant role in her work, based on her interest in the topic and her study with the

Rosicrucians Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its ...

Bibliography

As Christabel

* ''Manalacor of Veltakin'' (New York: Curtis Books, 1970) * ''The Cruachan and the Killane'' (New York: Curtis Books, 1970) * ''The Mortal Immortals'' (New York: Walker, 1971) * ''The Golden Olive'' (New York: Curtis Books, 1972)

As Kathleen Westcott

* ''Bride of Kilkerran'' (New York: Pocket Books, 1972)

Death

Abrahamsen died on February 7, 1995, in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahamsen, Christine Elizabeth 1916 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women educators 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers American science fiction writers American women nurses Columbia University School of Nursing alumni Hunter College alumni Novelists from West Virginia Nurses from New York (state) Nurses from West Virginia People from Oak Hill, West Virginia People from West New York, New Jersey Pseudonymous women writers West Virginia University Institute of Technology faculty Writers of Gothic fiction