Hervey Allen
William Hervey Allen was an American author born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1889. He first gained prominence for his scholarly biography, "Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe," which sought to explore the intricate relationship between Poe's life experiences and his literary contributions. Allen's most commercially successful work, the historical romance novel "Anthony Adverse," sold over one and a half million copies during his lifetime, making it one of the best-selling novels before the release of "Gone with the Wind."
Educated at the United States Naval Academy and the University of Pittsburgh, Allen's experiences included serving in World War I, where he was wounded. After the war, he settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where he collaborated with local writer DuBose Heyward on "Carolina Chansons." He published several poetry collections, with "Earth Moods, and Other Poems" exploring the theme of evolution. His poetic engagement with the Bermuda Islands is reflected in "New Legends." While he ventured into historical fiction, focusing on the Civil War in "Action at Aquila," his ambitious project of a six-novel series titled "The Disinherited" remained incomplete at his death in 1949. Allen's literary legacy is marked by a blend of historical narrative, poetry, and thorough biographical research.
Subject Terms
Hervey Allen
Author
- Born: December 8, 1889
- Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Died: December 28, 1949
- Place of death: Coconut Grove, Florida
American novelist and biographer
Biography
William Hervey Allen began writing poetry in the 1920’s, but his work in this form was overshadowed both by the scholarly achievement of his two-volume biography Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe and by Anthony Adverse, a novel of historical romance unsurpassed in sales by any other until Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was published three years later. During the author’s lifetime, one and a half million copies of this twelve-hundred-page picaresque tale of adventure were sold.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Allen was educated at the United States Naval Academy but left before graduating to take a degree in economics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1915. On his return from France, where he was wounded while serving as an officer during World War I, he went to live in Charleston, South Carolina. Friendship with another Charleston writer, DuBose Heyward, led to their collaboration on Carolina Chansons, published in 1922.
Three more collections of poetry soon followed, the most ambitious being Earth Moods, and Other Poems, an attempt to depict evolution as a legendary conflict ending in the supremacy of humans. New Legends may be Allen’s most successful book of poems, a volume reflecting his poetic absorption with the Bermuda islands, where he stayed for five years while completing Anthony Adverse. The adventurous exploits of Anthony Adverse, born the illegitimate son of a runaway wife and a Spanish father and adopted by his grandfather, a Scottish merchant, are mingled with philosophical musings to create a story filled with vivid scenes.
In his next venture into historical fiction, Allen restricted himself to the Civil War. Action at Aquila is a rather conventional story of a gallant Union hero and a Southern belle. The novels The Forest and the Fort, Bedford Village, and Toward the Morning were to have been parts of a series of six related novels tentatively titled “The Disinherited” and spanning American history from colonial times through the 1920’s, but Allen died while working on this ambitious project. The three novels and part of a fourth were collected under one title, The City in the Dawn, in 1950.
Perhaps Allen’s most distinguished work was his biography of Poe, which attempted to connect Poe’s literary achievements and failures with the conditions of his life. It is a work of careful research that also leans on Freudian psychology to explain Poe’s personality.
Bibliography
Knee, Stuart E. Hervey Allen, 1889-1949: A Literary Historian in America. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988. A full-length work that includes biography and criticism.
Mott, Frank Luther. Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1947. Includes a discussion of Allen.
“Obituary.” The New York Times, December 29, 1949. A short assessment.
Saturday Review of Literature, August 28, 1948. A brief older source.
Sullivan, Edward Dean [Hardly Alum, pseud.]. Romeo Reverse. New York: Vanguard Press, 1934. A contemporary parody of Anthony Adverse.
Van Gelder, Robert. Writers and Writing. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946. Includes a discussion of Allen.