Alice Dalgliesh (October 7, 1893 – June 11, 1979) was a naturalized American writer and publisher who wrote more than 40 fiction and non-fiction books, mainly for children.

[1] Three of her books were runners-up for the annual Newbery Medal, the partly autobiographical The Silver Pencil, The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, and The Courage of Sarah Noble, which was also named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list.

As the founding editor (in 1934) of Scribner's and Sons Children's Book Division, Dalgliesh published works by award-winning authors and illustrators including Robert A. Heinlein, Marcia Brown, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Katherine Milhous, Will James, Leonard Weisgard, and Leo Politi.

[5] Dalgliesh regularly wrote about children's books for Parent's Magazine (1929 to 1943), Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and The Saturday Review.

[11]: 217  The book is a thinly veiled partial-autobiography about Janet Laidlaw, born in Trinidad to a Scotch father and British mother, like Dalgliesh.

Frequently her books capitalized on her interest in American history and were praised for their "accuracy and detail as well as her creation of believable characters and dramatic plots.

"[4]: 258 Under her leadership the Children's Department at Scribners published many distinguished authors and illustrators like N.C. Wyeth, Genevieve Foster and Alfred Morgan.

[6] Dalgliesh also developed juvenile science fiction, and was Robert A. Heinlein's editor for many of his books, from Red Planet, (1949), to Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1959).

[17] Francis Felsen, who worked under Dalgliesh as an editor, said she "knew clearly what she liked and didn't like and stood behind it”, but she also "let authors write in their own voice, had insights into writers, and a respect for history".

All the people involved -- the editors, the artists, the reviewers, the teachers, the school librarians -- shared a common resolve to give American youngsters the very best literature that could be got.

Children's literature authority Leonard S. Marcus says in Minders of Make-Believe, "her department quietly captured the industry's respect and more than a few of its accolades.

Heinlein told his agent that he expected a stronger defense of his books for Scribners from his editor than to cave in to criticism and threats over trivial matters.

It was in this letter to his agent that Heinlein referred to his desire to take his books to another publishing house rather than deal with Alice Dalgliesh's requests for revisions of his work which were not related to their literary merits.

Heinlein's correspondence with his agent shows this was the reason why he ceased to write for Scribners, taking Starship Troopers to George Putnam's Sons, where it was successfully published, winning the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Novel.