William Hervey Allen Jr. (December 8, 1889 – December 28, 1949) was an American educator, poet, and writer. He is best known for his work Anthony Adverse (made into a 1936 movie of the same name), regarded by many critics "as the model and precursor of the contemporary American historical novel."

Allen received a BS in economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1915 where he contributed to the humor magazine The Pitt Panther. While at college, he also became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Allen served as a 2nd lieutenant in the 18th Pennsylvania Infantry on the Mexican border in 1916 during the Pancho Villa Expedition. That year he published a collection of poems, Ballads of the Border. He also served as a lieutenant, and later a company commander of Company "B" of the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment of the 28th (keystone) Division, United States Army during World War I and fought in the Aisne-Marne offensive July–August 1918. He was wounded in action at Fismes in August 1918. His book, Wampum and Old Gold, was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Allen is best known for his work Anthony Adverse. The book sold well and the royalties supported Allen and his family for the rest of his life. He planned a series of novels about colonial America called The Disinherited. He completed three works in the series: The Forest and the Fort (1943), Bedford Village (1944), and Toward the Morning (1948). The novels tell the story of Salathiel Albine, a frontiersman kidnapped as a boy by Shawnee Indians in the 1750s. All three works were collected and published as the City in the Dawn. Allen also wrote Israfel (1926), a biography of American writer Edgar Allan Poe.

In the 1940s, he co-edited the Rivers of America Series with Carl Carmer. Allen was a good friend of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and instigated her writing The Everglades: River of Grass. Allen was also close friends with Robert Frost and Ogden Nash.

Personal life

He married Ann Andrews on June 30, 1927. The marriage to his much younger former student was viewed as somewhat scandalous,

Selected works

  • Toward the Flame, George H. Doran Company, 1926
  • Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe (1926) reissued 1934.
  • Anthony Adverse (1933)
  • Action at Aquila, Farrar & Rinehart, (1938)
  • The Forest and the Fort (1943)
  • Bedford Village (1944)
  • Toward the Morning (1948)
  • The City in the Dawn (1950)
  • (reprint)

See also

  • Anthony Adverse (1936 Hollywood film)

Sources

References

  • Hervey Allen Papers [http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=ascead&cc=ascead&rgn=main&view=text&didno=US-PPiU-sc195201](Hervey Allen Papers, 1831–1965, SC.1952.01, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh)
  • Biographical Sketch by Ryan Cannon
  • The Rivers of America Series, A Descriptive Bibliography, Carol Fitzgerald, 2001
  • Works by Hervey Allen at Project Gutenberg Australia