Elaine Marie Alphin (October 30, 1955 in San Francisco, California – August 19, 2014 in Glenrock, Wyoming) was an American author of more than thirty books for children and young adults. Although she specialized in fiction, she has published many non-fiction titles, including biographies of Davy Crockett, Louis Pasteur, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Paul Jones, which she co-wrote with her husband Arthur Alphin (as part of Lerner Publishing's History Maker Biographies series).
She is noted for writing historical fiction and psychological thrillers. Several of her novels dealt with controversial topics such as serial killers, pedophiles, child abuse, homosexuality, murder, and suicide. At the same time those titles have proven extremely popular with both critics and young readers.
Elaine Marie Alphin is one of the subjects of the Contemporary Authors series, a collection of biographies published by Thomson Gale in 2007.
In August 2011 Alphin suffered a stroke, which essentially ended her writing career. Her last book was An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank (2010).
Alphin died at home in Glenrock, Wyoming on August 19, 2014.
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