Henry Southworth Allen (born 1941 in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

) is an American

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning critic, journalist, poet, and artist.

Biography

Education

Allen obtained his degree in English and art at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

and

Montgomery College Montgomery College (MC) is a Public college, public community college in Montgomery County, Maryland. Founded officially in 1946 as Montgomery Junior College, its name comes from the county in which it is located. The earliest start date that c ...

Career

Allen began his painting and drawing in the late 1960s. He was a stationed in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

in the mid-1960sWemple, Erik
"Allen v. Roig-Franzia: From the Beginning,"
''Washington City Paper'' (November 2, 2009). as a

U.S. Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

. Allen was a critic for ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' and worked on staff for the ''

New Haven Register The ''New Haven Register'' is a daily newspaper published in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The Register's main office is located at 100 Gando Drive in New Haven. The ''Register'' was established about 1812 and i ...

''. As a staff writer for the Style section, he worked at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' for 39 years. In 1975, he was awarded a

NEH Journalism Fellowship The Knight-Wallace Fellowship (previously known as the NEH Journalism Fellowship and the Michigan Journalism Fellowship) is an award given to accomplished journalists at the University of Michigan. Knight-Wallace Fellowships are awarded to report ...

at the University of Michigan.Press release
"$5 Million from Knight Foundation and $1 Million from Mike Wallace Launch New Era for Journalism Fellows at the University of Michigan Program Renamed The Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan,"
Knight Foundation website (Sep 28, 2002). He left ''The Washington Post'' in 2009 after an altercation with a fellow staffer (although he had already announced his resignation and was planning on leaving a few weeks later). Allen then began teaching courses in cultural analysis in the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

honors program. Allen had solo shows in June 2009 at

Strathmore Hall Strathmore is a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, Maryland, United States. Strathmore was founded in 1981 and consists of two venues: the Mansion and the Music Center. It is the home to hundreds of performances and ...

and in August 2012 at the

Chebeague Island Chebeague Island is located in Casco Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Maine. It was originally used as a fishing ground by Abenaki Native Americans. Also known as Great Chebeague (pronounced "sha-big") Island, today it is a town in Cumberland Count ...

Library.

Awards and honors

Allen was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...

in 2000 for his writings in ''

'' on photography.

Appearances

He appeared on the ''

Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show foc ...

'', February 2, 2010.

Bibliography

* ''Fool's Mercy'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1984) — thriller novel * ''Going Too Far Enough: American Culture at Century's End'' (Smithsonian, 1994) — collection of ''Washington Post'' columns * ''The Museum of Lost Air: Poems'' (Dryad Press, 1998) * ''What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century'' (Pantheon Books, October 2000) * ''Where We Lived: Essays on Places'' (Mandel Vilar Press, 2017)

References

External links

* Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners Living people Hamilton College (New York) alumni 1941 births University of Michigan fellows 20th-century American journalists American male journalists {{US-journalist-1940s-stub