Frederick lewis allen biography sampler

American historian (–)

Frederick Lewis Allen (July 5, &#; February 13, ) was the editor of Harper's Magazine and also notable as an American historian of the first half of the twentieth century. His specialty was writing about recent and popular history.

Life

Allen was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Allen, Frederick Lewis - Encyclopedia.com: Frederick Lewis Allen was born in born in Boston, Massachusetts in After studying at Harvard University he joined the editorial staff of the Atlantic Monthly. This was followed by periods working for Century Magazine and Harper's Magazine.

He studied at Groton, graduated from Harvard University in and received his Master's in He taught at Harvard briefly thereafter before becoming assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly in , and then managing editor of The Century in He began working for Harper's in , becoming editor-in-chief in , a position he held until shortly before his death, aged 63, in New York City.

His wife, Dorothy Penrose Allen (née Cobb, a first cousin of Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker), died just prior to the publication of his best-known book, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the s.

He died on February 13, , and is buried in lot , section 7 of Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.^[1]

Works

Allen's popularity coincided with increased interest in history among the book-buying public of the s and s.

This interest was met, not by the university-employed historian, but by an amateur historian writing in his free time.

Frederick Lewis Allen - Spartacus Educational

Frederick Lewis Allen - Art and Popular Culture

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Frederick Lewis Allen - Spartacus Educational

Details

Aside from Allen, these historians included Carl Sandburg, Bernard DeVoto, Douglas Southall Freeman, Henry F. Pringle, and Allan Nevins (before his Columbia appointment).^[2]

His most famous book was the enormously popular Only Yesterday (), which chronicled American life in the s. Since Yesterday (), a sort of sequel that covered the Depression of the s, was also a bestseller.

The Hollywood film Only Yesterday was ostensibly based on his book, but actually used only its timeline,^[3] with a fictional plot adapted from a Stefan Zweig novel.^{[citation needed]}

He wrote the introduction to Mabel S. Ulrich's collection of essays by notable woman writers of the day, including Mary Borden, Margaret Culkin Banning, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Susan Ertz, E.

M. Delafield, Rebecca West, Isabel Paterson and Storm Jameson, The More I See Of Men (Harper & Brothers, ).

His last and most ambitious book, The Big Change, was a social history of the United States from to (He had originally written a Harper's article^[4] about how America had changed between and , but decided to limit the chronological scope of his book.) Allen also wrote two biographies, the first of which was about Paul Revere Reynolds, a literary agent of the era.

Frederick Lewis Allen - Spartacus Educational

Frederick Lewis Allen (July 5, – February 13, ) was the editor of Harper's Magazine and also notable as an American historian of the first half of the twentieth century. His specialty was writing about recent and popular history.

This work is notable because it contains a chapter about Stephen Crane, but is difficult to find because it was privately published.

In , Allen was one of five narrators for the RKO Radio Picturesdocumentary film, The Golden Twenties, produced by Time, Inc.^[5]

Recognition

The Frederick Lewis Allen Room in the New York Public Library was established by the Ford Foundation in It is Room e on the second floor of the library.

Admission is limited to writers under book contract to a publishing company.^[6]

Allen's son, Oliver Ellsworth, also worked in journalism with a stint at Life magazine.^[7]

Bibliography

• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the s.

  New York: Harper and Row. Archived from the original on January 1, (history)^[8]

• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). The Lords of Creation: The History of America's 1 Percent. New York: Harper and Row. (history, biography, economics)
• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). Since Yesterday: The s in America, September 3, to September 3, .

  New York: Harper and Row. (history)

• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). Paul Revere Reynolds: A Biographical Sketch. Scranton: The Haddon Craftsmen. (biography)
• Allen, Frederick Lewis ().
  Frederick lewis allen only yesterday Frederick Lewis Allen was born in born in Boston, Massachusetts in After studying at Harvard University he joined the editorial staff of the Atlantic Monthly. This was followed by periods working for Century Magazine and Harper's Magazine.

  Look at America. New York City. A Handbook in Pictures, Maps and Text for the Vacationist, the Traveler and the Stay-at-home. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (travel)

• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). The Great Pierpont Morgan.
  Frederick lewis allen biography Frederick Lewis Allen (–) was born in Boston, studied at Groton, and graduated from Harvard in He was assistant and associate editor of Harper’s Magazine for eighteen years, then the magazine’s sixth editor in chief for twelve years until his death.

  New York: Harper and Row. (biography)

• Allen, Frederick Lewis (). Big Change: America transforms itself, . New York: Harper and Row. (history)

References

Further reading

• Payne, Darwin. The man of only yesterday&#;: Frederick Lewis Allen, former editor of Harper's magazine, author, and interpreter of his times () online

External links