Overview
Administrative Information
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Description of the Collection
Access Terms
Index of Major Correspondents
Overview
Call Number: SC0134
Creator:
Alden, Raymond Macdonald, 1873-1924.
Title: Raymond Macdonald Alden papers
Dates: 1891-1924
Physical Description:
5.5 Linear feet
Summary: Includes personal correspondence, speeches, essays, articles, lectures, notes, manuscripts, manuscript materials for some
of Alden's works, and 34 pocket journals (1891-1924). Correspondents include James and Parker Hall, Cheesman A. Herrick, Frank
Hill, Will David Howe, William Jaggard, Edmund James, Harry Stuart Veddar Jones, W. A. Neilson, A. G. Newcomer, S. A. Tannenbaum,
Ashley H. Thorndike, and Henry Van Dyke.
Language(s): The materials are in English.
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc
Administrative Information
Provenance
Gift of Donald H. Alden, 1975, 1985.
Information about Access
This collection is open for research.
Ownership & Copyright
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
Cite As
Raymond Macdonald Alden Papers (SC0134). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
Biographical/Historical Sketch
R.M. Alden, born in New Hartford, New York in 1873, was the only child of the Reverend Gustavus R. Alden and Isabella Macdonald
Alden (editor of a juvenile publication and author of numerous Sunday school books and fiction for adult readers). He began
his college career at Rollins College in Florida, a school which would award him an honorary doctorate in 1910. Alden eventually
completed his A.B. in English at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1894.
Alden earned his A.M. from Harvard (1896) and finished his Ph.D. at Penn (1898). During his student and immediately post-doctoral
years, he was an instructor at Columbian (now George Washington) University, an assistant at Harvard, and a Senior Fellow-instructor
at Penn. He came to Stanford in 1901 as Assistant Professor of English and Rhetoric. Promoted to Associate Professor in 1909,
Alden left for the University of Illinois in 1911, having been offered a full professorship and the chairmanship of the Illinois
English Department. He retraced his steps four years later when Stanford offered him a duplicate situation. Alden continued
as chairman at Stanford until his death in 1924.
Alden's major professional works include: The Rise of Formal Satire in England (1899), The Art of Debate (1900), On Seeing
an Elizabethan Play (1903), English Verse (1903), An Introduction to Poetry (1909), Tennyson--How to Know Him (1917), Shakespeare
(Master Spirits of Literature Series, 1917).
In addition, Alden served as editor for numerous editions of Shakespeare (Julius Caesar and Sonnets) and other authors, as
well as for several anthologies of essays, poems, and other readings. He was a frequent contributor to professional journals
and publications.
Alden also achieved a certain amount of recognition as a writer of fiction and poetry. His Knights of the Silver Shield (1906),
Why the Chimes Rang (1909), and The Boy Who Found the King (1922) were joined on the verse side by Consolatio--an Ode. A short
story won third prize ($1,000) in the Collier's contest of 1905.
Alden served as President of the Drama League of America from its founding in 1914 until his death in 1924. He was also a
member of the Modern Language Association, American Philological Association, American Association of University Professors,
Phi Beta Kappa, and Beta Theta Pi.
Married to Barbara G. Hitt in 1904, Alden had a daughter and four sons. He was active in the Palo Alto Presbyterian Church.
[Information obtained from the Who Was Who in America, Vol I, 1897-1942, and from the Stanford Illustrated Review, October
1924.]
Description of the Collection
Raymond Macdonald Alden (1873-1924) was an Assistant and later Associate Professor of English at Stanford from 1901 to 1911.
He returned to Stanford as a full Professor and as department chairperson in 1915, maintaining this position until his death.
This collection contains a relatively small portion of Alden's personal and professional papers. There are four boxes of incoming
correspondence (with a few copies of outgoing letters interfiled), most of which came from English teachers with whom Alden
was acquainted at other institutions. There are four boxes of manuscripts and manuscript materials for some of Alden's minor
works: essays, articles, lectures, notes for lectures, speeches (including the valedictory address that Alden delivered at
the University of Pennsylvania commencement of 1894), several poems, and a number of short stories (including all of those
from the collection The Ends of the Earth, publication unknown).
In addition, the collection contains thirty-four pocket journals in which Alden chronicled the days of the years 1891 through
1924. These diaries note weather conditions, general activities, reading done and writing completed. There are also brief
comments on major historical events (San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, outbreak of World War I, etc.), although the journals'
purpose appears to have been primarily one of objectively recording factual data.
This collection also contains 5 issues of the Carbondale Firefly, a privately printed and distributed journal which Alden
produced in his childhood.
Access Terms
Alden, Raymond Macdonald, 1873-1924.
Hall, James Parker.
Herrick, Cheesman A.
Hill, Frank Ernest, 1888-1969
Howe, Will David, 1873-1946.
Jaggard, William, 1868-1947.
James, Edmund.
Jones, Harry Stuart Vedder.
Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931
Neilson, William A. W.
Newcomer, A. G.
Stanford University. Department of English. Faculty.
Tannenbaum, S. A.
Thorndike, Ashley Horace, 1871-1933.
Wilbur, Ray L., (Ray Lyman), 1875-1949
Authors.
College teachers.
English language--Study and teaching.
Essays.
Journals.
Manuscripts (for publication).
Notes.
Speeches.
Index of Major Correspondents
Name |
Adams, Reverend Charles Ryan |
Adams, Joseph Q. |
American Book Company |
American Magazine |
Baker, George P. |
Barstow, C.L. |
Basset, L.E. |
Bernays, Albin |
Birmingham Library |
Blodgett, B.G. |
Boston Public Library |
Bovard, George F. |
Boyer, C.V. |
Briggs, L.B.R. |
Burnight, T.S. |
Carruth, W.H. |
Christian Endeavor World |
Clark, F.H. |
Clark, G.A. |
Coolbrith, Ina |
Cooper, Lane |
Cranston, William |
Croll, Morris W. |
The Dial |
Douglas, Lloyd F. |
Duffield & Co. Publishers |
Duniway, Clyde A. |
Earle, Homer P. |
Paul Elder & Co. |
Ensminger, F.P. |
The Evangelist |
Fenning, Frederick A. |
Flugel, Ewald |
Folger, H.C. |
Forbis, John F. |
Ford, J.H. |
Furness, Horace Howard |
Gaw, Allison |
Gayley, C.M. |
Good Housekeeping Magazine |
Gosse, Edmund |
Gray, H.D. |
Greenlaw, Edwin |
Hall, James Parker |
Harper and Brothers Publishers |
Hart, Walter Morris |
Harvard Graduates Magazine |
Hempl, George |
Herrick, Cheesman A. |
Hill, Frank |
Henry Holt & Co. |
Howe, Julia Ward |
Howe, Thomas C. |
Howe, W.D. |
Huston, C.A. |
Illinois, University of |
Jaggard, William |
James, Edmund |
Jessup, Alexander |
Jones, H.S.V. |
Jones, Llewellyn |
Jordan, David Starr |
Kellogg, V.L. |
Kelly, W.H. |
Kemp, D.C. |
Kittredge, G.L. |
Liddell, Mark H. |
The MacMillan Co. |
Manly, John M. |
Markham, Edwin |
McClatchy, V.S. |
Modern Language Reviews |
Monaghan, James |
Montague, A.P. |
Morris, A.R. |
Morrow, William |
Morton, Edward P. |
The Nation |
Neihardt, J.G. |
Neilson, W.A. |
Nevin, Allan |
Newcomer, A.G. |
Nolen, John |
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. |
Noyes, Alfred |
Noyes, George R. |
Omond, T.S. |
Padelford, Frederick M. |
Peers, E. Allison |
Pennsylvania, Associated Clubs |
Pennsylvania, University of |
Pepper, George W. |
Perriman, J.W. |
Perry, Bliss |
Pittman, E.K. |
Presbyterian Publication House |
Remington Typewriter Co. |
Riley, Alice |
Robinson, Fred N. |
Rollins College |
Benjamin H. Sanborn & Co. |
Schelling, Felix E. |
Scott, Foresman, & Co. |
Searles, Colbert |
Seward, S.S., Jr. |
Sherman, Stuart P. |
Skinner, Ada M. |
Smith, Kate E. |
Stoll, Elmer E. |
Tannenbaum, Dr. S.A. |
Tatlock, John S.P. |
The Texas Review |
Thayer, William R. |
Thompson, Karl O. |
Thorndike, Ashley H. |
Tolman, A.H. |
Trumbull, C.G. |
Trumbull, H. Clay |
Van Dyke, Henry |
Villard, Oswald Garrison |
Vincent, John H. |
Weygandt, Charles |
Wilbur, Ray Lyman |
Winans, J.A. |
Woodbridge, Homer |
Woolbert, Charles S. |
Wright, C.F. Tucker |