Alice Muriel Williamson (8 October 1858 – 24 September 1933), who published chiefly under names the C. N. and A. M. Williamson and Mrs. C. N. Williamson, was an American-English author.
She was born 8 October 1858 to parents Marcus and Jane (Thomas) King in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father was co-founder of the Ohio State and Union Law College. In 1890, she adopted the surname "Livingston" from her maternal great-grandfather following separation from her first husband, Lieutenant William Reeve Hamilton, who disapproved of her budding career as an actress. In 1892, she expatriated herself to England (and from her first husband) as foreign correspondent for the Boston Evening Transcript, supplying that paper with approximately 120 "letters" between 1892 and 1897 before devoting herself full-time to fiction, although she remained an occasional freelance journalist for the rest of her life. Two years after arriving in England, she married magazine editor Charles Norris Williamson (1857–1920) whom she persuaded to appear as co-author for many of her books, later acknowledging her sole authorship.
Her success as an author, in its early stages, was owing to Alfred Harmsworth who, recognizing her talent, promoted her stories – especially sensational serials – in the Daily Mail and his many other publications. Her first serial, "Confessions of a Stage-Struck Girl," appeared in Forget-Me-Not (August 11-November 17, 1894), partly inspired by her earlier career as an actress in America, as was her first novel, The Barnstormers (1897), written at the suggestion of S. R. Crockett upon hearing her describe some of her theatrical experiences at a dinner party. Her second novel, A Woman in Grey (1898), established her reputation as a worthy successor to Wilkie Collins. A third, The Newspaper Girl (1899), exploited Elizabeth Banks's "stunt" journalism, turning some of the same stratagems to humorous effect. Humor would become one of her most striking characteristics as an author, beginning with The Lightning Conductor (1902), the novel that catapulted her overnight to international fame, selling more than a million copies in America. James Milne, in Memoirs of a Bookman (1934), speaks of a "tradition" that she was "the wittiest girl who ever invaded Fleet Street."
Although best known for her series of motor travel romances, she was a literary polymath adept at a wide variety of genres (detective, mystery, Gothic, spy, adventure, war, ghost, fairy, satire, fictional memoir, muckraking, etc.), often published anonymously or pseudonymously, such as Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1907) as by John Colin Dane (memoirs narrated by the car itself), and her sensational exposé of German war plans on the eve of World War I, What I Found Out in the House of a German Prince (1915), purporting to be "by an American-English Governess," the latter so realistic that it was accepted as a true account and published serially in the Fortnightly Review.
She died on 24 September 1933 under strange circumstances. She was found unconscious in a hotel in Bath with sleeping tablets scattered on the floor. Doctors tried to save her but were unsuccessful. She reportedly lost more than $150,000 in the US market crash. An inquest ruled that she died of accidental poising and did not intend to commit suicide. An executor of her estate told the inquest that she was not in financial difficulties despite her losses in America.
Her remains are interred next to those of her husband in Bath Abbey Cemetery.
The Barnstomers: Being the Tragical Side of a Comedy (1897)
Berry Goes to Monte Carlo (1921)
The Botor Chaperon (1907); and (sl) Grand Magazine August 1906-March 1907
The Career of Joan Carthew (aka The Girl Who Had Nothing) - serialised in the Windsor Magazine December 1903 to May 1904
The Case of Ann Arthur, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly March 1930
Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1907) with illustrations by Walter Ernest Webster
The Chauffeur and the Chaperon (1908); and (sl) The Delineator July 1906-August 1907
The Darkened Room, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly April 1933
The Diamond Code, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly March 1932
The Door Between, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly December 1932
Duchess, Behave!, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly June 1929 (with Sydney Arundel)
The Eccentricity of Fleetwood, (ss) Strand Magazine (UK) July 1901, (US) August 1901