Paul Allen (editor)

{{Infobox writer

| name = Paul Allen

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1775|02|15}}

| birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island, United States

| death_date = {{Death date|1826|08|18|1775|02|15}}

| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, United States

| resting_place =

| occupation = Writer, poet, historian, editor

| alma_mater = Brown University

}}

Paul Allen (February 15, 1775 – August 18, 1826) was an American poet, historian, and editor.{{Cite book | publisher = Harvard University Press | last = Mott | first = Frank Luther | title = A History of American Magazines: 1741-1850 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 1966 | postscript = , 4th printing | page = 294}}

Biography

Born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 15, 1775, Allen studied at Brown University, graduating in 1793. He later relocated to Philadelphia, where he served as editor of The Port Folio, the Gazette of the United States, and the Federal Republican.{{cite book |last=Kettell |first=Samuel |orig-year=1829 |title=Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices, in Three Volumes |url=https://www.bartleby.com/96/224.html |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publisher=S.G. Goodrich & Co. |access-date= August 24, 2020 |year=2010}} Online edition by Bartleby.com, February 2010.

While in Philadelphia, he edited a two-volume history{{Gutenberg|bullet=none|no=16565|name=History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark}} of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, published in 1814 in that city, but without mention of the actual author, banker Nicholas Biddle.{{cite book | last1 = Cutright | first1 = Paul Russell | title = Contributions of Philadelphia to Lewis and Clark History | publisher = Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. | date = July 1982 | location = Portland, Oregon | pages = 33–35 | isbn = 0-9678887-0-0 | quote = An anomaly of some proportion is the fact that the 1814 account, now commonly referred to as the Biddle edition, carried no mention of Biddle anywhere. ... The only logical explanation of this incredible omission is that Biddle wanted it that way, insisted on complete anonymity.}}

Allen reached the height of his reputation after he moved to Baltimore, where he served as editor of the short-lived Journal of the Times and the more-successful Baltimore Morning Chronicle. He also joined the Delphian Club, where he earned the "clubicular" name of Solomon Fitz Quizz and the title of Professor of Loblology, which was defined as "the science of endeavoring to do that which is impossible."{{cite journal |last=Uhler |first=John Earle |date=December 1925 |title=The Delphian Club: A Contribution to the Literary History of Baltimore in the Early Nineteenth Century |url=https://archive.org/details/marylandhistoric2019mary/page/304/mode/2up |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=330, 335 }}

He proposed publishing A History of the American Revolution, but relied on fellow Delphians John Neal and Dr. Tobias Watkins to write all but the preface to satisfy the subscribers to its publication in 1819.{{cite book | last = Sears | first = Donald A. | title = John Neal | publisher = Twayne Publishers | location = Boston, Massachusetts | year = 1978 | isbn = 080-5-7723-08 | page = 40}}

Thomas Jefferson considered Allen the country's best author of prose.{{cite magazine | last = Yorke | first = Dane | title = Yankee Neal | magazine = The American Mercury | date = March 1930 | volume = 19 | issue = 75 | page = 363 | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York City, New York}} In his 1824–25 critical work American Writers, Neal's assessment was more nuanced: "Mr. Allen is a showy, eloquent prose-writer—who never thinks, and, if he can help it, never reasons{{nbsp}}.... His prose is full of poetry—his poetry is miserably full of prose."{{cite book | last = Daggett | first = Windsor | title = A Down-East Yankee From the District of Maine | publisher = A.J. Huston | location = Portland, Maine | year = 1920 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007921667 | oclc = 1048477735 | page = 13}}