Her best known works were: Four Girls at Chautauqua, Chautauqua Girls at Home, Tip Lewis and his Lamp, Three People, Links in Rebecca's Life, Julia Ried, Ruth Erskine's Crosses, The King's Daughter, The Browning Boys, From Different Standpoints, Mrs. Harry Harper's Awakening, The Measure, and Spun from Fact.

"[5] The sixth of seven children, Alden was initially home-schooled by her father, who also gave her the nickname Pansy, because of an incident that occurred in her childhood.

[2] She wrote approximately 75 Sunday school books and a number of volumes of fiction for older readers, as well as The Prince of Peace, a life of Jesus Christ.

She did much work with Christian periodicals, writing serialized stories for the Herald and Presbyter from about 1870 until 1900; editing The Pansy, a Sunday juvenile publication, from 1874 to 1896; editing the Primary Quarterly and producing the primary-grade Sunday School lessons for the Westminster Teacher for 20 years; and working on the editorial staff of Trained Motherhood and The Christian Endeavor World.

Most of her works are didactic fiction with religious principles, which concentrate on translating Biblical precepts into acceptable Christian behavior in a modern world.

[2] She and her niece, Grace Livingston Hill, even make a brief appearance in the final chapter of the series' last book, Four Mothers at Chatauqua.

[3] After the deaths of her husband and son in 1924, Alden moved to Palo Alto, California,[4] to live with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

[2] She continued writing until shortly before her death on August 5, 1930. her unfinished autobiography, Memories of Yesterday, was completed and edited by her niece, Grace Livingston Hill.