page_title: Isabella Macdonald Alden
section_title: Literary works
hierarchical_section_title: Isabella Macdonald Alden / Literary works
caption_attribution_description: English: Isabella Macdonald Alden's The Pansy
context_page_description: Isabella Macdonald Alden was an American author. Her best known works were: Four Girls at Chautauqua, Chautauqua Girls at Home, Tip Lewis and his Lamp, Three People, Links in Rebecca's Life, Julia Reid, Ruth Erskine's Crosses, The King's Daughter, The Browning Boys, From Different Standpoints, Mrs. Harry Harper's Awakening, The Measure, and Spun from Fact.
  She also wrote the primary lesson department of the Westminister Teacher, edited the Presbyterian Primary Quarterly and the children's magazine Pansy, and wrote a serial story for the Herald and Presbyter of Cincinnati every winter. Alden was interested in Sunday school primary teaching, and had charge of more than a hundred children every Sunday for many years. She was interested in temperance also, but health issues and a busy life kept her from taking an active part in the work. She gave liberally to the cause, and four of her books, Three People, The King's Daughter, One Commonplace Day, and Little Fishers and their Nets, were distinctively temperance books, while the principle of total abstinence was maintained in all her writings.
context_section_description: Alden's first book, Helen Lester, was written for a contest at age twenty. She wrote approximately 75 Sunday school books, and a number of volumes of fiction for older readers, as well as The Prince of Peace, a life of Christ. She wrote on the subjects of love to God and love to her fellow-men, dedicating her work to the advancement of the Christian religion in the home life and in the business life. She served as president of the Missionary Society, superintendent of the primary department of the Sunday School, identified with the Chautauqua assemblies, and prepared the Sunday School lessons for the "Westminster Teacher". Her works were translated into Swedish, French, Japanese, and Armenian. Alden edited the Juvenile periodical Pansy, 1873–96. For many years, she was a contributor to Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, and Christian Endeavor World, Boston, besides the Primary Quarterly. She made her home in Palo Alto, California.
  Throughout her life, Alden combined her writing and her religion. She did much work with Christian periodicals, writing serialized stories for the Herald and Presbyter from about 1870 until 1900; editing The Pansy, a Sunday juvenile, from 1874 to 1896; editing the Primary Quarterly and producing the primary-grade Sunday School lessons for the Westminster Teacher for 20 years; and working on the editorial staff of Trained Motherhood and The Christian Endeavor World.
  From 1865 to 1929, Alden authored about 100 books. Most of her works are didactic fiction with religious principles, which concentrate on translating Biblical precepts into acceptable Christian behavior in a modern world. Several of her books, such as her most popular work Ester Ried, were based on personal experiences; others, such as the Chautauqua Girls series, were motivated by her interest in the Chautauqua movement. She and her niece, Grace Livingston Hill, even make a brief appearance in the final chapter of the series' last book, Four Mothers at Chatauqua.
  Alden's books were enormously popular during the late 19th century. In 1900, sales were estimated at around 100,000 copies annually. Some titles like Ester Ried, were translated into several languages, including French, German, Russian, and Japanese.
caption: The Pansy (June 1894)
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