Raymond Macdonald Alden

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Raymond Macdonald Alden (1873 – 1924) was an American scholar and educator, born in New Hartford, N. Y. He studied at Rollins College, Fla., and at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1894. He took post-graduate studies there at Penn and at Harvard. In 1894-95 he was instructor in English at Columbian (now George Washington) University; in 1896-97 assistant in English at Harvard; and in 1898-99 senior fellow in English at the University of Pennsylvania. He was chosen to fill the position of assistant professor of English literature and rhetoric at Leland Stanford, Jr., University in 1899, then became associate professor there in 1909. He accepted the chair of English at the University of Illinois in 1911. He edited several plays of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists and in 1910 an edition of Thoreau's Walden. Alden also became known as a contributor to educational journals and short stories to magazines. In 1913 he edited an edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint. His writings include:

• The Rise of Formal Satire in England (1899)
• The Art of Debate (1900)
• On Seeing an Elizabethan Play (1903)
• Consolation: An Ode (1903)
• Knights of the Silver Shield (1906)
• An Introduction to Poetry (1909)
• A Palace Made by Music (1910)
• Tennyson, How to Know him (1917)
• Critical Essays of the Early Nineteenth Century (1921)
• Shakespeare (1922)
• The Boy Who Found the King (1922)

Alden is also the author of the once popular Christmas story Why the Chimes Rang (1909). It is the story of a grand old church with beautiful chimes which mysteriously ring out every Christmas Eve whenever someone places an especially pleasing gift on the altar as an offering, and how a miracle occurs after the chimes have fallen silent for years. The story is a sort of variation on the Jongleur de Notre Dame and Little Drummer Boy themes.

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.