Alice Brown (1) (1856–1948)

Alice Brown was born on a farm in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. She graduated from Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter in 1876. While there, she showed a talent for writing and other students and faculty enjoyed listening to her read her work aloud. She became a schoolteacher for five years, but came to dislike the profession and moved to Boston to write full-time. She worked as a journalist and editor at the Christian Register and then at the Youth's Companion. In 1884, she published her first novel, Stratford-by-the-Sea, beginning a long and prolific literary career. She became part of the Boston literary scene and came to know other writers, including Louise Imogen Guiney, William Dean Howells, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Annie Fields, and Robert Frost. She formed a close friendship with Guiney and the two women toured the English countryside together. After Guiney died in 1920, Brown wrote her biography. In 1915, she published a play called Children of the Earth, which won the Winthrop Ames contest for best new American drama, and was produced on Broadway, but it closed after a month. She went on to publish One Act Plays (1921) and Charles Lamb: A Play (1924). She produced a book or play each year until 1935, but never reached the level of fame that she hoped for. After her death in 1948, she was mostly forgotten and her works fell out of print.