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Amelia Elizabeth Walden was born in New York City on January 15, 1909.  She graduated from Columbia University in 1934 and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  From 1935 to 1945, she taught English and Dramatics at Norwalk High School in Connecticut.  She married John William Harmon in 1946. 

Her first novel, Gateway, was published in 1946.  Walden told her editor that she intended the novel for young people who lived at the gateway, on that middle ground between adolescence and adulthood.  Walden claimed, “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.”

Walden wrote over 40 young adult novels, including: 

• Heartbreak Tennis. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977.
• Escape on Skis. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975.
• Play Ball. McGill! Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1972.
• Valerie Valentine Is Missing. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971.
• Where Was Everyone When Sabrina Screamed? Philadelphia: Westminster Press,  1971.
• Basketball Girl of the Year. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970.
• A Name for Himself. New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1967.
• In Search of Ophelia. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.
• My World’s the Stage. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
• So Near the Heart. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
• When Love Speaks. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.
• My Sister Mike. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
• Three Loves Has Sandy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955.

Walden passed away in 2002 in Westport, Connecticut.

A collection of some of her literary manuscripts and correspondence with McGraw-Hill between 1954 and 1977 relating to book production is available for review in the Special Collections and University Archives of the University of Oregon Libraries.  Materials include inter-office memoranda, cost estimates, check disbursement forms, and book production information.  

For more information, please see http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv06514.