Biography

She was born in Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

. She grew up in Boston, taught at elementary school there and went on into journalism. She wrote for the Boston Home Journal, the Boston Journal and the Boston Herald

Boston Herald

The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...

. She started the short-lived The Mahogany Tree

The Mahogany Tree

The Mahogany Tree was a weekly literary magazine published from January until December 1892.-Overview:It was started by Mildred Aldrich, and it was supposedly 'devoted solely to the "fine arts"'...

in 1892.

In 1898, she moved to France, and, while there, became a friend of Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...

 and Alice B. Toklas

Alice B. Toklas

Alice B. Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.-Early life, relationship with Gertrude Stein:...

. She worked as a foreign correspondent and translator.

Aldrich moved to Huiry, near Paris, in 1914, only months before the outbreak of the First World War. Her house there overlooked the Marne river valley, and her experiences during the First Battle of the Marne

First Battle of the Marne

The Battle of the Marne was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive that opened the war and had...

, as detailed in her letters to friends in the U.S., constitute her first book, A Hilltop on the Marne (1915). Following the success of that work, Aldrich produced three more collections of her wartime letters. On the Edge of the War Zone (1917) contains letters dating from the aftermath of the Marne battle until the entry of the U.S. into the war, The Peak of the Load (1918) details most of the final year of the war, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1919) describes her experiences in the months immediately following the war's end.

Aldrich also produced one novel, Told in a French Garden, August 1914 (1916), and in 1926 completed an autobiography entitled Confessions of a Breadwinner, which resides in the collections of the Schlesinger Library

Schlesinger Library

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F...

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, but has never been published.

Collections of letters

• A Hilltop on the Marne (1915)
• On the Edge of the War Zone (1917)
• The Peak of the Load (1918)
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1919)

External links

• Mildred Aldrich Papers. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.