Isabella's Fans (7)

Isabella Macdonald Alden

Author profile

born

November 03, 1841 in Rochester, NY, The United States

died

August 05, 1930

gender

female

genre

Children's Books, Religion & Spirituality

About this author

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The sixth of seven children born to Isaac and Myra Spafford Macdonald, of Rochester, New York, Isabella Macdonald received her early education from her father, who home-schooled her, and gave her a nickname - "Pansy" - that she would use for many of her publications. As a girl, she kept a daily journal, critiqued by her father, and she published her first story - "The Old Clock" - in a village paper when she was ten years old.

Macdonald's education continued at the Oneida Seminary, the Seneca Collegiate Institute, and the Young Ladies Institute, all in New York. It was at the Oneida Seminary that she met her long-time friend (and eventual co-author), Theodosia Toll, who secretly submitted one of Macdonald's manuscripts in a competition, sett...more The sixth of seven children born to Isaac and Myra Spafford Macdonald, of Rochester, New York, Isabella Macdonald received her early education from her father, who home-schooled her, and gave her a nickname - "Pansy" - that she would use for many of her publications. As a girl, she kept a daily journal, critiqued by her father, and she published her first story - "The Old Clock" - in a village paper when she was ten years old.

Macdonald's education continued at the Oneida Seminary, the Seneca Collegiate Institute, and the Young Ladies Institute, all in New York. It was at the Oneida Seminary that she met her long-time friend (and eventual co-author), Theodosia Toll, who secretly submitted one of Macdonald's manuscripts in a competition, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to the publication of her first book, "Helen Lester," in 1865.

Macdonald also met her future husband, the Rev. Gustavus Rossenberg Alden, at the Oneida Seminary, and the two were married in 1866. Now Isabella Macdonald Alden, the newly-married minister's wife followed her husband as his postings took them around the country, dividing her time between writing, church duties, and raising her son Raymond (born 1873).

A prolific author, who wrote approximately one hundred novels from 1865 to 1929, and co-authored ten more, Alden was also actively involved in the world of children's and religious periodicals, publishing numerous short stories, editing the Sunday Juvenile "Pansy" from 1874-1894, producing Sunday School lessons for "The Westminster Teacher" for twenty years, and working on the editorial staff of various other magazines ("Trained Motherhood," "The Christian Endeavor").

Highly influenced by her Christian beliefs, much of Alden's work was explicitly moral and didactic, and often found its way into Sunday School libraries. It was also immensely popular, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with an estimated 100,000 copies of Alden's books sold, in 1900.

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Books by Isabella Macdonald Alden

Average rating: 3.96 · 536 ratings · 62 reviews · 81 distinct works

	Ester Ried 4.26 avg rating — 69 ratings — published 1870 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Ester Ried Yet Speaking 4.35 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 1883 — 21 editions	My rating:
	Four Girls at Chautauqua 4.00 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 1876 — 23 editions	My rating:
	The King's Daughter 3.63 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1873 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Julia Ried 3.89 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1872 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Three People 3.94 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1899 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Grace Livingston Hill Collection No. 1 by Isabella Macdonald Alden, Grace Livingston Hill 3.69 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1999	My rating:
	Wise & Otherwise 3.56 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1873 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Judge Burnham's Daughters 3.67 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1888	My rating:
	The Chautauqua Girls at Home 4.06 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1877 — 5 editions	My rating: