James Lane Allen (December 21, 1849 – February 18, 1925) was an American novelist and short story writer whose work, including the novel A Kentucky Cardinal, often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. His work is characteristic of the late 19th-century local color era, when writers sought to capture the vernacular in their fiction. Allen has been described as "Kentucky's first important novelist".

Early life and education

James Lane Allen was born near Lexington, Kentucky, to Richard and Helen Jane (Foster) Allen on December 21, 1849. Allen, the youngest child in the family, had four sisters Lydia, May, Sally, and Annie, and two brothers, John and Henry. Allen lived at the Scarlet Gate estate in Lexington in the late 1800s until age 22 years.

In 1872, Allen graduated from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, taught at Fort Spring, Kentucky, at Richmond and at Lexington, Missouri, and from 1877 to 1879 at the academy of the University of Kentucky, where he was principal and taught modern languages. In 1880, he was professor of Latin and English at Bethany College (West Virginia); and then became head of a private school at Lexington, Kentucky. Allen spent his youth in Lexington during the Antebellum era, the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction periods.

thumb|Photo of Allen (c. 1894)

Death and legacy

Allen died "from insomnia" in 1925,

James Lane Allen School, an elementary school off Alexandria Drive in Lexington, Kentucky is named in his honor.

Bibliography

thumb|First edition cover of [[The Choir Invisible (1897)]]

Works published by Allen include:

  • Flute and Violin (1891) (compilation of previously published stories)
  • The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky (1892) (second compilation)
  • Sister Dolorosa, and Posthumous Fame (1892)
  • John Gray (1893)
  • A Kentucky Cardinal (1894)
  • Aftermath (1895) (sequel to A Kentucky Cardinal)
  • Summer in Arcady (1896)
  • The Choir Invisible (1897)
  • Two Gentlemen of Kentucky (1899)
  • Out from the heart (1900)
  • The Increasing Purpose (1900)
  • The Reign of Law (1900)
  • The Mettle of the Pasture (1903)
  • The Bride of the Mistletoe (1909)
  • The Doctor's Christmas Eve (1910)
  • The Heroine in Bronze (1912)
  • The Last Christmas Tree (1914)
  • The Sword of Youth (1915)
  • A Cathedral Singer (1916)
  • The Kentucky Warbler (1918)
  • The Emblems of Fidelity (1919)
  • The Alabaster Box (1923)
  • The Landmark (1925)

Notes

Further reading

  • Bennett, Enoch Arnold (1901). "Mr. James Lane Allen." In: Fame and Fiction. London: Grant Richards, pp. 171–180.
  • Bottorff, William K. (1964). James Lane Allen. New York: Twayne Publishers.
  • Knight, Grant C. (1935). James Lane Allen and the Genteel Tradition. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
  • Townsend, John Wilson (1928). James Lane Allen: A Personal Note. Louisville, KY: Courier-journal Job Printing Company.
  • James Lane Allen, by George Brosi
  • Works by James Lane Allen available online, wsu.edu
  • James Lane Allen: A Sketch of his Life and Work , kdl.kyvl.org