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Condé Benoist Pallen Edit Profile

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Conde Benoist Pallen was an American editor and author. He wrote essays, poetry, and novels.

Background

Conde Benoist Pallen was born on December 5, 1858 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Dr. Montrose Anderson Pallen and Anne Elizabeth Benoist. His paternal grandfather moved from Virginia to St. Louis, where for more than a quarter of a century he taught at St. Louis Medical College. Montrose Anderson Pallen, a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, served as medical director, 1861-1863, under General Henry A. Wise, General William J. Hardee, and the Department of Mississippi. In 1874 Dr. Montrose was called to teach gynecology at the University of the City of New York; in 1883 he became interested in the organization of the medical school of Fordham University. Anne (Benoist) Pallen was a direct descendant of the Chevalier Benoist who came to America as an officer under Montcalm. Her father, Louis A. Benoist, was a banker in St. Louis.

Education

Condé Benoist Pallen was graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. In 1880, and in 1883 he received the degree of Master of Arts from the same institution. He studied also at St. Louis University where, after acquiring the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (1885), he remained for a short time as teacher.

Career

From 1887 to 1897 Pallen was editor of Church Progress (St. Louis). As Roman Catholic revisory editor of the New International Encyclopedia and of the Encyclopedia Americana he became convinced that the time was appropriate for the publication of a work, the need of which had long been felt by Catholic scholars, which would give "full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action, and doctrine. " The Catholic Encyclopedia (16 vols. , 1907-1914; supplement, 1922) was the result. Pallen was one of its board of editors, and from 1904 to 1920 was its managing editor.

From 1912 to 1920 he served as president of the Encyclopedia Press which was organized to continue the publication of the Encyclopedia and to sponsor other works in the Catholic field. He was later editor of the Universal Knowledge Foundation, whose program included a general encyclopedia, Universal Knowledge, of which two volumes (1927 - 1928) appeared before his death, and the New Catholic Dictionary (1929). Conde Benoist Pallen's published works included: The Philosophy of Literature (1897), New Rubaiyat (1898), Epochs of Literature (1898) and others.

Pallen began in 1885 a career in lecturing and literature which brought him considerable fame in Catholic circles. He contributed papers on American Catholic literature to the Catholic Congress held in Baltimore in 1889. In the same year he delivered the "Centennial Ode" at Georgetown College. He was, besides, a constant contributor to the Catholic periodical press, and as chairman of the National Civic Federation's Department of Subversive Movements. He was killed in the battle of Franklin on May 26, 1929.

Achievements

  • Conde Benoist Pallen was known for his service as an editor of Church Progress and the Catholic World, and a managing editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Works

All works

Views

Conde Benoist Pallen was the indignant foe of restricted immigration, feminism, and social radicalism.

Connections

In 1886 Conde Binoist Pallen married Georgiana McDougal Adams of St. Louis, whose father, General John Adams of Nashville, Tennesse, a graduate of West Point. They had ten children.

Father:
Montrose Anderson Pallen

Mother:
Anne Elizabeth Benoist Pallen

Spouse:
Georgiana Adams Pallen

Daughter:
Esther Janet Pallen Noyes

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