Ralph Allen (August 25, 1913 – December 2, 1966) was a Canadian journalist, editor, and novelist. Born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, Allen was raised and educated in

Oxbow, Saskatchewan Oxbow is a town in the southeast of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located on the Canadian Pacific Railway and on Provincial Highway 18. It is approximately 58 kilometers west of Saskatchewan's border with Manitoba and approximatel ...

. At sixteen he became a sports reporter for ''

The Winnipeg Tribune ''The Winnipeg Tribune'' was a metropolitan daily newspaper serving Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from January 28, 1890 to August 27, 1980. The paper was founded by R.L. Richardson and D.L. McIntyre who acquired the press and premises of the old '' ...

'', before moving to Toronto's renowned ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' where he served as a war correspondent during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1946, he joined newsmagazine ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...

'', becoming editor in 1950. He left Maclean's in 1960 and worked for ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' from 1964 until his death in 1966. Allen was the author of several books, including the novel ''Peace River Country'' (1958) and ''Ordeal by Fire: Canada, 1910-1945'' (1961), a history of Canada during the period of the two world wars. In 1967,

Christina McCall Christina McCall (29 January 193527 April 2005) was a Canadian political writer. Biography Christina McCall was born on 29 January 1935 in Toronto, Ontario, to Orlie Alma (Freeman) and Christopher Warnock McCall. She studied English language an ...

edited a collection of Allen's newspaper and magazine columns entitled ''The Man From Oxbow''. Oxbow's town museum is named in Allen's honour. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1990.

Books by Allen

* ''Home Made Banners'' (Toronto, London, New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1946), a novel about

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

* ''The Chartered Libertine'' (Toronto: Macmillan, 1954), a novel about the CBC * ''Peace River Country'' (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1958), a novel about a family's search for a home in Canada's

Peace River Country The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; french: Région de la Rivière-de-la-paix) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia ...

* ''Ordeal by Fire: Canada, 1910-1945'' (Toronto: Doubleday Canada Limited, 1961), a history of Canada from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

* ''Ask the Name of the Lion'' (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962), a novel about conflict in the Congo * ''The High White Forest'' (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964), a novel about Canadians in the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

* ''The Man from Oxbow: The Best of Ralph Allen'' (Toronto, Montreal: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1967), a collection of some of Allen's newspaper and magazine columns, edited with an introduction by Christina McCall Newman

External links

Ralph Allen
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

*
Ralph Allen
at the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
Maclean's: The First 100 Years
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Ralph 1913 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian novelists Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Canadian magazine editors Canadian male journalists Canadian male novelists Journalists from Manitoba Journalists from Saskatchewan Maclean's writers and editors People from Oxbow, Saskatchewan Writers from Winnipeg Writers from Saskatchewan