The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alden, William Livingston

ALDEN, William Livingston, author, was born in Williamstown, Mass., Oct. 9, 1837, son of Prof. Joseph Alden. He was educated in Lafayette and Jefferson colleges, and was graduated at the latter in 1858. He then studied law, became an editor on the New York Times, and subsequently wrote for young people. He was U.S. consul at Rome in 1885-'89, and received from the king the cross of chevalier of the order of the Crown of Italy. He was leader writer on the Paris Herald in 1890-'3, when he retired to London. He is the author of "Domestic Explosives (1878); "Shooting Stars" (1879); "A New Robinson Crusoe" (1880); "Canoe and Flying Proa" (1880); "The Moral Pirates" (1881); "Life of Christopher Columbus" (1882); "The Cruise of the Ghost" (1882); "The Cruise of the Canoe Club" (1883); "The Adventures of Jimmy Brown" (1885); "The Loss of the Swansea" (1889); "Trying to Find Europe" (1889); "A Lost Love" (1892); "Told by the Colonel" (1893); "Freaks" (1895); "The Mystery of Elias G. Roebuck"; "His Daughter"; "Van Wagener's Way."