During a career that spanned more than sixty years, Isabella Macdonald Alden, writing as Pansy, composed nearly 150 books which were read by a worldwide public. Her works were so widely appreciated by a popular audience that they were translated into many languages, including Armenian, Bulgarian, Japanese, and Swedish.

Born in Rochester, New York, Isabella Macdonald was the youngest of six children. Her parents were Isaac and Myra Spofford Macdonald. She received her early education from her father, who was an active advocate of the reforms of the day. It was from her father that she received the pet name Pansy. He also encouraged her to keep a daily journal and to write for his criticism stories and reports on sermons that she heard at church. By this means she developed her facility of expression when she was still a child.

Alden, using the pseudonym Pansy, had her first...