Alice Brown (writer)


Alice Brown was an American novelist, poet and playwright, best known as a writer of local color stories. She also contributed a chapter to the collaborative novel, The Whole Family.

Biography

She was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire and graduated from Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter in 1876. She later worked as a school teacher for five years, but moved to Boston to write full-time in 1884. She first worked at the Christian Register and then, starting in 1885, the Youth's Companion.
Brown is believed to have had a long-term relationship with Louise Imogen Guiney and wrote of their travels together in her book By Oak and Thorn and later wrote the biography Louise Imogen Guiney — a Study.
Brown was a prolific author for many years, but her popularity waned after the turn of the 20th century. She produced a book a year until she stopped writing in 1935. She corresponded with Rev. Michael Earls of the College of the Holy Cross and with Father J. M. Lelen of Falmouth, Kentucky, with whom she also exchanged poems. Yale University and Holy Cross now have the only sizable collections of her letters, since she ordered that most of her personal correspondence should be destroyed after her death. Brown died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1948.

Works

Fools of Nature novelSunrise on Mansfield Mountain Meadow-Grass: Tales of New England Life storiesThe Rose of Hope Mercy Warren The Day of His Youth novelBy Oak and Thorn travelog Tiverton Tales storiesKings End novelMargaret Warrener novelThe Mannerings novelHigh Noon storiesParadise novelThe Country Road storiesRose MacLeod novelThe Whole Family The Story of Thyza novelJohn Winterbourne's Family novelCountry Neighbors storiesGolden Baby
In 2009, The Library of America selected this story for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub.The One-Footed Fairy storiesMy Love and I novelRobin Hood's Barn Vanishing Points storiesJoint Owners in Spain Children of Earth playBromley Neighborhood novelThe Prisoner novelThe Flying Teuton storiesThe Black Drop novelHomespun and Gold storiesThe Wind Between the Worlds novelOne-Act Plays Louise Imogen Guiney — a Study biographyOld Crow novelEllen Prior, verseDear Old Templeton novelThe Diary of a Dryad novelThe Kingdom in the Sky novelJeremy Hamlin novelThe Willoughbys novel
Another book by Alice Brown is The Patient Sufferer, A Story For Youth. It was written for the American Sunday-School Union, and revised by the Committee of Publication. Also noted on title page:
Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, No. 146 Chestnut Street. This book also has a sketch on the preceding page with the title "Where Alice Brown lived".