Background
James Lane Allen was born on December 21, 1849 on a farm near Lexington, Kentucky, United States. He was the seventh and youngest child of Richard and Helen (Foster) Allen. On his father's side he was descended from Virginia pioneers of English blood, on his mother's from Scotch and Irish ancestors. His early days were passed happily on the farm, but after 1860, with the coming of hostilities between North and South, the Allens suffered heavy misfortunes, encountering the hardships of both Civil War days and Reconstruction.
Education
Allen received first instruction from his mother, who directed his reading as well as stimulated his interest in Kentucky birds, flowers, and woodland scenery. At about the age of ten he began attending a neighboring school, then at seventeen the Academy of Transylvania College, and in 1868 Transylvania College itself (known at the time as Kentucky University), graduating with honors in 1872. Later in life he reentered his Alma Mater to work for a Master of Arts degree, receiving it from Transylvania in 1877 and an honorary Master of Arts degree from Bethany University in 1880.
Career
Allen entered upon a varied career as schoolmaster and college professor. For a year he taught in the district school at Fort Springs, Kentucky, for another in the high school at Richmond, Missouri. For a time he acted as tutor to the Whitney family near Lexington.
In 1878 he accepted the principalship of Transylvania Academy, a position he held until offered the chair of Latin at Bethany College, West Virginia, in 1880. Here he was professor during the academic year 1881-1882 and during most of 1882-1883; then he resigned the post and returned to Lexington, once more to open a private school. This school was his last; closing its doors two years later, he gave up teaching altogether. During these years in the schoolroom, however, he had been serving his true apprenticeship. He had extended the scope of his reading, especially among French and British novelists. He had also become engrossed in scientific study, and was particularly interested in the theories of Darwin and Huxley. Most important of all, he had been practising the art of writing, so that when presently he ventured to address the editors, he was master of a deft and euphonious style.
His first significant contributions were to the Continent, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Independent, Critic--articles on Keats, Heine, Pepys, Hawthorne. Harper's for March 1884 contained his poem "Midwinter. " "Too Much Momentum, " his first story, appeared in Harper's for April 1885. By 1886 he was well on the way to establishing himself. Real success came in 1891, with the publication of his first book, Flute and Violin, and Other Kentucky Tales and Romances, distinctive short stories reprinted from the magazines. Allen's reputation was now made.
He left Kentucky, where except for occasional sojourns elsewhere he had lived since his birth, and in 1893 settled permanently in New York City. After this removal, his work became more pretentious, for like so many other successful American story writers, he turned novelist. In 1893 appeared John Gray, a slight novel subsequently expanded; in 1894 and 1895 respectively, A Kentucky Cardinal and Aftermath, idyllic accounts of two lovers in a Kentucky garden, and Allen's masterpieces; and other works. From this point on, Allen's popularity declined somewhat, although he continued to be highly esteemed both at home and abroad.
At the time of his death he was collecting his last magazine stories, published posthumously as The Landmark (1925); for this work he had intended an autobiographical preface and an introduction, dealing with the short story, but unfortunately these were left as brief fragments.
Allen's closing years were apparently uneventful. They were years of retirement, hard work, study, and devotion to an invalid sister. In 1894, 1900, 1909, and perhaps other years, he was in Europe; but after settling in New York he returned but once to Kentucky--because, as he said, of the painfulness of noting the inevitable changes in city and district. He was frequently asked to lecture upon his works, but whereas in earlier years he had sometimes done so, later he consistently refused.
He died on February 18, 1925 and was buried in Lexington.
Views
Quotations:
"Adversity does not build character, it reveals it. "
"You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration. "
"Circumstances do not determine a man, they reveal him. "
"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. "
"Man's rise or fall, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness depends on his attitude . .. a man's attitude will create the situation he imagines. "
Personality
Allen appears to had been very sensitive, avoiding publicity and furnishing the outside world few facts about himself. Those who knew him personally, however, agreed that as a man he was most engaging. His friend, George Folsom Granberry, wrote that he was "most dignified, formal, adhering strictly to the highest ideals of personal conduct, extremely kind-hearted; to his intimate friends, all that was genial and considerate; inaccessible to 'lion-hunters, ' and entirely devoid of any feeling for personal display. "
