Young Ewing Allison - Project Gutenberg eText 19273

Young Ewing Allison (1853–1932) was an American writer and newspaper editor. Born in Henderson, Kentucky, Allison was partially deaf from an early age and became a voracious reader. By the age of fifteen he was working as an editor for the Henderson ''News''; in 1873, he moved to

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, where he continued as a newspaper editor. The quality of his reporting caught the attention of the managing editor of the Louisville '' Courier-Journal'', and in 1880, Allison was taken on as city editor. In 1887 he founded a trade journal, ''The Insurance Field'' and was its editor until 1926. Allison was a writer of prose and verse and is best remembered for his poem the "Derelict," written to complete the famous verse fragment by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

in '' Treasure Island'', " Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest." He also wrote the libretto to Henry Waller's ''The Ogallallas'', the first American-Indian opera, in 1890. He maintained a long correspondence with

Eugene Field Eugene Field Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood". Early life and education Field was born in St. Louis, Missour ...

and

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

, the latter of whom dedicated several volumes of poetry to Allison. The last years of his life were spent exploring Kentucky's rich history, often with his close friend J. Christian Bay of Chicago. He wrote several articles on the

Abbey of Gethsemani The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani is a Catholic monastery in the United States near Bardstown, Kentucky, in Nelson County. The abbey is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (''Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae''), ...

, a Trappist monastery in western Kentucky. Allison also played a prominent role in the establishment of Federal Hill, the mansion in Bardstown, Kentucky that is said to have inspired Stephen Foster's song '' My Old Kentucky Home'', as a state historic site in 1922.

Works

*''On the Vice of Novel-Reading'', 1897 *''Delicious Vice'', 1907–09 *''City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky'', 1887 *''Curious Legend of Louis Philippe in Kentucky'', 1924 *''Select Works of Young E. Allison'', 1935

External links

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Text of the poem "The Derelict"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, Young E. 1853 births 1932 deaths Editors of Kentucky newspapers People from Henderson, Kentucky Writers from Louisville, Kentucky American non-fiction writers American print editors Courier Journal people