Amelia Elizabeth Walden
Personal Information
Description
After graduating from Columbia University in 1934, Amelia Elizabeth Walden attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also in New York. From 1935 to 1945 she taught English and Dramatics at Norwalk High School, Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1946 Miss Walden married John William Harmon. This was also the year that her first book was published. At the request of her editor she revised the manuscript, entitled Gateway, to fit a new genre emerging at the time, called the "young adult" novel which was aimed at a post-adolescent but not yet adult audience, approximately ages 16 to 18. She is considered a pioneer in this area of American literature. Miss Walden found success writing for this audience, and commented, "I respond to young people because I remember my own adolescence so vividly - and fondly. It was a period of total involvement, of enjoying life to the hilt." Miss Walden wrote over 40 novels published by McGraw-Hill, Lippincott, William Morrow, The Westminster Press, and Appleton Century-Crofts. She was residing in Westport, Connecticut when she died.
Books
Where was everyone when Sabrina screamed?
A girl detective on the trail of a runaway in Morocco becomes involved in cracking an international drug smuggling ring.
Stay to win
Being torn between two boy friends, one of whom her family strongly dislikes, doesn't help a high school girl's performance on the girl's basketball team.
Heartbreak tennis
Determined to become a professional tennis player, a young girl finds the pursuit of her goal complicated by romance.
Escape on skis
While training for the skiing olympics in Switzerland, Kim Merrill is caught up in the intrigue surrounding the mysterious disappearance of her fiancé.
A spy case built for two
A young girl employed by the CIA poses as a poet at an international conference. She and her strong silent partner hope to trap an infamous espionage agent.
Walk in a tall shadow
A seventeen-year-old boy struggles with conflicting opinions toward his strong-willed father, hating him for his hypocrisy while gradually gaining admiration for his father's pursuit of a dream not unlike his own.
Spy Who Talked Too Much
A past of poverty in the Middle East taught a young woman the tricks of espionage; however, it is a past she hesitates to become involved with again, even at the urging of the CIA.
A spy called Michel-e
An airline stewardess and nurse is tapped by the CIA for a mission in the Peruvian mountains, where the name Michel-E proves to be a key to her past as well as to international mystery.
Same scene, different place
A Spanish Harlem girl living on probation in a wealthy Connecticut town cannot seem to escape the influence of her old environment.
My sister Mike
Thoughtful book about a teen girl wanting to be more than only a great basketball player. Asked out by a wealthy, popular guy only on a dare, she decides to try to remake herself to be more in his world. She still stays true to herself in the important ways and he finds he likes her for herself.
What happened to Candy Carmichael?
Lisa and her private eye employer investigate the murder of a friend whose body was discovered clad in a wedding dress.
Valerie Valentine is missing
While vacationing in Spain, Lisa Clark becomes involved in the search for a famous portrait painter who is missing.
Basketball girl of the year
A high school girl strives to win the award for Basketball Girl of the Year knowing it is her passport out of the ghetto.
I found my love
Terry sets out to explore the deserted island which she has recently inherited from her brilliant but somewhat eccentric inventor grandfather. Mystery and romance follow when Terry finds someone os surreptitiously using her island.
Go, Phillips, go!
A basketball star from an ethnic ghetto struggles for the championship and with her own values as she chooses between two young men with very different backgrounds.
The case of the diamond eye
Somewhere in Europe or South Africa private detective Jake Jefferson and his young assistant, Lisa Clark, hope to find the answer to a murder mystery and a missing diamond amulet.