Alice Dorothea Alden Thompson was born in Chicago on 12 January 1892. She attended the
University of Chicago, the
Lewis Institute and the
University of Michigan. She married fellow Chicago newspaper reporter Herbert Brande in 1916. They divorced sometime before 1930. Her book
Becoming a Writer (pub. 1934) offers advice for beginning and sustaining any writing enterprise and remains in print today.
Wake Up and Live (pub. 1936) which sold more than a million copies. was used as the inspiration for the comedy film
Wake Up and Live in 1937. While she was serving as associate editor of
The American Review she married the journal's owner and editor,
Seward Collins in 1936. Collins also served as the managing editor of
The Bookman. Collins was a prominent literary figure in New York and a proponent of an American version of
fascism. Brande died in Boston on 17 December 1948. == Selected works ==