Allen, James Lane, 1849-1925

James Lane Allen was Kentucky's first important novelist. His success came early in his career but when he tried to broaden the themes of his work he lost the audience and critical acclaim which he had previously received.

American novelist.

James Lane Allen was an American author and critic. Born and raised in Kentucky, Allen began publishing criticism when various other plans proved unworkable. His approach to criticism was moral and logical, and he preferred romance fiction to realism. He achieved popular success with his own stories and novels of Kentucky, using these tales to promote his critical theories and beliefs. His fiction represented the contemporary trend for local color in fiction, although his popularity waned in the literary environment of the early 20th century.

James Lane Allen was a Kentucky novelist who achieved success in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with many novels and short stories describing the Bluegrass region and frontier life in the Commonwealth.

Allen was a popular Kentucky novelist and short-story writer. He wrote extensively concerning the Blue Grass region.

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American author.

Author.

Author

James Lane Allen was born near Lexington, Kentucky, December 21, 1849. He was the seventh and youngest child of Richard Allen, a Kentuckian, and his wife, Helen Foster Allen, a native of Mississippi. Lane Allen, as he was known in Kentucky until he became a distinguished figure in letters, was interested in books and nature when a boy under his mother's tutelage. He attended Kentucky University, later known as Transylvania, graduating valedictorian in 1872 and an M.A. five years later.He was a teacher until 1884, when he became a writer. The first seven or eight years as a writer he divided between New York, Cincinnati, and Kentucky. After that time he resided in New York. He began writing short essays and poems for periodicals. He was later known for his short stories, sometimes collected, and his novels.

James Lane Allen was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1849. He attended Transylvania Academy and graduated from Kentucky University (later Transylvania University) in 1872. During much of the 1870s and 1880s he had a varied career as an educator, serving as professor and schoolmaster at institutions in Missouri, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

In 1884 he quit teaching and began his career as a writer, moving first to Cincinnati, Ohio, and later to New York City. His short stories and serialized novels were published in various literary magazines, including the ATLANTIC and HARPER'S, and he received international recognition for his work on such novels as A KENTUCKY CARDINAL (1894) and THE CHOIR INVISIBLE (1897). The last years of his life were marked by a decline in his literary reputation and popularity, and he died in New York in relative obscurity.

Biographical note: James Lane Allen was born near Lexington, Kentucky in 1849. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Kentucky University (now Transylvania University). He taught school for several years and established a school for boys in Lexington. He later abandoned teaching to devote all his time to writing.

Allen began his literary career by submitting essays to various periodicals, such as HARPER'S and the CENTURY MAGAZINE. His novels included A KENTUCKY CARDINAL, AFTERMATH, THE CHOIR INVISIBLE, THE HEROINE IN BRONZE, THE BRIDE OF THE MISTLETOE, and THE REIGN OF LAW. Allen lived in Kentucky and Cincinnati at the beginning of his career but later maintained his primary residence in New York City, where he died in 1925.