Hervey Allen



William Hervey Allen (December 8, 1889 – December 28, 1949) was an American poet and novelist.

Biography
Allen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]]. He attended the University of Pittsburgh in 1915, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, graduating in 1915.

He served as a Lieutenant in the 28th (keystone) Division, United States Army during the World War I, and fought in the Aisne-Marne offensive July–August 1918. He wrote Toward the Flame (1926), a nonfictional account of his experiences in the war.

For a period of time, Allen taught at the Porter Military Academy in Charleston, South Carolina. He also taught English at Charleston High School which at that time, although public, was only for boys. (The girls went to Memminger.) There he met and befriended DuBose Heyward. He later was a professor at Vassar University where he met his wife, Ann "Annette" Andrews. They had three children, Marcia, Mary Ann and Richard.

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 close friends with Robert Frost and Ogden Nash.

Allen died at his home, called the Glades, in Coconut Grove, Florida, aged 60, from a heart attack while in the shower, and was found by his wife Annette.

Writing
Allen is best known for his historical novel, Anthony Adverse.

He also 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.

Poetry

 * Wampum and Old Gold. New York: Yale University Press, 1921; London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1921.
 * Earth Moods, and other poems. New York & London: Harper, 1925.
 * New Legends: Poems. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1929.

Novels

 * Anthony Adverse. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933.
 * The Forest and the Fort. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1943.
 * Bedford Village. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1944.
 * Toward the Morning. New York & Toronto: Rinehart, 1948; London: Heinemann, 1949.
 * The City in the Dawn. New York & Toronto: Rinehart, 1950

Non-fiction

 * 'Toward the Flame: A war diary. New York: Doran, 1926; Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968; Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
 * Israfel: The life and times of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Doran, 1926; London: Brentano's, 1926; New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.
 * DuBose Heywood: A critical and biographial sketch. New York: Doran, 1927.

Juvenile

 * Action at Aquila. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1938.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.


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