Hervey Allen
William Hervey Allen Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | Coconut Grove, Florida, US | December 8, 1889
Allegiance | United States |
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."[1]
Early life
Allen was born in
Allen received a BS in economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1915[3] where he contributed to the humor magazine The Pitt Panther.[4] While at college, he also became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.[5]
Allen served as a 2nd lieutenant in the 18th Pennsylvania Infantry on the Mexican border in 1916 during the
Academic career
Allen became a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. For a period of time, he 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 (girls went to Memminger High School.) There he met and befriended DuBose Heyward. They collaborated on a volume of poems, Carolina Chansons (1922).[2]
In 1925, he lectured on American Literature at Columbia University. From 1926 to 1927, he was a lecturer on modern poetry at Vassar College, where he met his future wife.[2]
Writing career
He wrote Toward the Flame (1926), a nonfictional account of his experiences in the war.
Allen greatly admired Thomas Jefferson. "Interest in American history and in a sort of American utopianism would characterize most of his later works."
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.[7] 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,[2] and the couple took up residence in Bermuda. They had three children: Marcia, Mary Ann and Richard.[3]
Death and legacy
Allen died at his home, called
Selected works
- Wampum and Old Gold. Yale University Press. 1921.
Hervey Allen.
- Toward the Flame, George H. Doran Company, 1926 reprint. University of Nebraska Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8032-5947-8.
- Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe (1926) reissued 1934.
- ISBN 4-87187-890-2
- 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)
- Achmed Abdullah, Hervey Allen, ed. (2003). Lute and Scimitar. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7661-7626-3. (reprint)
See also
- Anthony Adverse (1936 Hollywood film)
Sources
- ^ a b c "Hervey Allen", Poetry Foundation"
- ^ a b c d "Hervey Allen", Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Pennsylvania State University
- ^ OCLC 657162692
- ^ Elmer, Anne June, ed. (1936). The Pitt Panther. Pittsburgh, PA: Senior Class of the University of Pittsburgh. p. 128. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
- ISBN 0-86576-008-X
- ^ a b "William Hervey Allen, Jr., First Lieutenant, United States Army". Retrieved April 13, 2016.
- ^ Stoneman Douglas, Stoneman. Marjory Stoneman Douglas; Voice of the River. Englewood, FL: Pineapple Press, 1987. p. 190.
- ^ Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14000 Famous Persons (entry 188) by Scott Wilson
References
- Hervey Allen Papers [1](Hervey Allen Papers, 1831–1965, SC.1952.01, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh)
External links
- Biographical Sketch by Ryan Cannon
- The Rivers of America Series, A Descriptive Bibliography, Carol Fitzgerald, 2001
- Works by Hervey Allen at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Hervey Allen at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Works by or about Hervey Allen at Internet Archive
- Works by Hervey Allen at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)