Alice B. Emerson

Alice B. Emerson was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the book-producing company behind many famous children's series. Rather than belonging to a single person, the name was attached to the Ruth Fielding and Betty Gordon books, which were published for young readers in the early 1900s.

The Ruth Fielding series ran from 1913 to 1934 and followed its heroine from orphaned girlhood into school, college, and adult life. Different ghostwriters worked under the Alice B. Emerson name over time; sources identify W. Bert Foster, Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, and Mildred Benson among the writers connected with the Ruth Fielding books.

That shared authorship is part of what makes Alice B. Emerson interesting today. The name represents the Stratemeyer Syndicate's fast-moving, highly organized way of creating fiction for young readers—an approach that helped make series books a lasting part of popular reading.