Hervey Allen

Hervey Allen (December 8, 1889—December 28, 1949) was an American author.

He was born William Hervey Allen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 1915, where he also became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Allen is best known for his work 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 1750's. 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.

For a period of time, Allen taught at the Porter Military Academy in Charleston, South Carolina. There he met and befriended DuBose Heyward.

In the 1940s he co-edited the Rivers of America Series with Carl Carmer.

Allen died in Miami, Florida from a heart attack while in the shower, and was found by his wife Annette.

Bibliography

• Anthony Adverse (1933)
• Israfel
• Action at Aquila (1938)
• The Forest and the Fort

Sources

• Biographical Sketch by Ryan Cannon
• The Rivers of America Series, A Descriptive Bibliography, Carol Fitzgerald, 2001