Alden R. Carter was born on April 7, 1947, in Eau
Claire, Wisconsin. He was born to the couple of John Kelly Carter
and Hilda Richardson Carter (Fletcher). Ever since Alden Carter was
eight years old, he knew 
that
he wanted to be an author when he grew up. Alden graduated from Eau
Claire Memorial High School in 1965 and went on to school with a Navy ROTC
scholarship at the University of Kansas. He later earned his bachelors
degree in English and humanities, and went on to graduate,
in 1969.
Alden
earned his teaching certificate from Montana State University, and
went on to teach journalism in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Finally,
in 1980 Carter quite his job and began his career as a full time writer.
In 1984, his book, Growing Season, was published by Coward McCann
and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. After this,
he decided to start writing young adult, non-fiction books along with his
fiction stories. Today Carter writes and does assemblies for schools
and other organizations.