Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (February 24, 1848 – October 25, 1899) was a Canadian science writer and novelist, educated in England. He was a public promoter of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Biography

Early life and education

Allen was born on Wolfe Island near Kingston, Canada West (known as

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

after Confederation), the second son of Catharine Ann Grant and the Rev. Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant minister from

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland. His mother was a daughter of the fifth Baron de Longueuil. Allen was educated at home until, at age 13, he and his parents moved to the United States, then to France, and finally to the United Kingdom. He was educated at King Edward's School in Birmingham and at Merton College in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, both in the United Kingdom. After graduation, Allen studied in France, taught at Brighton College in 1870–71, and in his mid-twenties became a professor at Queen's College, a black college in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. Despite being the son of a minister, Allen became an atheist and a socialist.

Writing career

After leaving his professorship, in 1876 he returned to England, where he turned his talents to writing, gaining a reputation for his essays on science and for literary works. A 2007 book by

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurology, neurologist, Natural history, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford ...

cites with approval one of Allen's early articles, "Note-Deafness" (a description of what became known as amusia, published in 1878 in the learned journal ''

Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

''). Allen's first books dealt with scientific subjects, and include ''Physiological Æsthetics'' (1877) and ''Flowers and Their Pedigrees'' (1886) He was first influenced by associationist psychology as expounded by Alexander Bain and by

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...

, the latter who especially espoused the transition from associationist psychology to Darwinian functionalism. In Allen's many articles on flowers and on perception in insects, Darwinian arguments replaced the old Spencerian terms, leading to a radically new vision of plant life that influenced H.G. Wells and helped transform later botanical research. On a personal level, a long friendship that started when Allen met Spencer on his return from Jamaica grew uneasy over the years. Allen wrote a critical and revealing biographical article on Spencer that was published after Spencer's death. After assisting Sir W. W. Hunter with his ''Gazetteer of India'' in the early 1880s, Allen turned his attention to fiction, and between 1884 and 1899 produced about 30 novels. In 1895, his scandalous book titled '' The Woman Who Did'', promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions, became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock. Owing to his concern with these subjects, Allen was associated with

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

, whose novel '' Jude the Obscure'' (1895) was published the same year as ''The Woman Who Did''. In his career, Allen wrote two novels under female pseudonyms. One of these, the short novel ''The Type-writer Girl'', he wrote under the name Olive Pratt Rayner. Another work, ''The Evolution of the Idea of God'' (1897), propounds a theory of religion on heterodox lines comparable to

's "ghost theory". Allen's theory became well known and brief references to it appear in a review by Marcel Mauss, Durkheim's nephew, in the articles of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

and in the works of

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

. G. K. Chesterton wrote on what he considered the flawed premise of the idea, arguing that the idea of God preceded human

mythologies Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, rather than developing from them. Chesterton said of Allen's book on the evolution of the idea of God: "it would be much more interesting if God wrote a book on the evolution of the idea of Grant Allen". Allen also became a pioneer in

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

, with the novel '' The British Barbarians'' (1895) This book, published about the same time as

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

's ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...

'' (which appeared in January–May 1895, and which includes a mention of Allen), also described time travel, although the plot is quite different. Allen's short story ''The Thames Valley Catastrophe'' (published December 1897 in '' The Strand Magazine'') describes the destruction of London by a sudden and massive

volcanic eruption A volcanic eruption occurs when material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure. Several types of volcanic eruptions have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior h ...

Ancestry

Personal life

Allen married twice, first to Caroline Ann Bootheway (1846–1871) and secondly to Ellen Jerrard (b, 1853) with whom he had one son, Jerrard Grant Allen (1878–1946), a theatrical agent/manager who in 1913 married the actress and singer Violet Englefield. They had a son, Reginald "Reggie" Grant Allen (1910-1985). Grant Allen's nephew, Grant Richards, was a writer and publisher who founded the Grant Richards publishing house. Allen encouraged his nephew's interest in books and publishing and helped him obtain his first positions in the book trade. Richards was later to publish a number of books written by his uncle, including ''The Evolution of the Idea of God'' and those in the book series Grant Allen's Historical Guides. Allen's nieces by marriage, novelist Netta Syrett, and artists Mabel Syrett and Nellie Syrret all contributed work to '' The Yellow Book''. In 1893 Allen left London for the hills around the Devil's Punch Bowl, enthusing on the advantages of the change of scene: "Up here on the free hills, the sharp air blows in upon us, limpid and clear from a thousand leagues of open ocean; down there in the stagnant town, it stagnates and ferments."

Death and posthumous publication

Grant Allen died of liver cancer at his home on Hindhead,

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill (Hindhead, Surrey), Beacon Hill, they comprise ...

, Surrey, England, on 25 October 1899. He died before finishing '' Hilda Wade''. The novel's final two episodes were completed by his friend and neighbour Dr

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

; the final episode appeared under the appropriate title "The Episode of the Dead Man Who Spoke" in the ''Strand Magazine'' in 1900.

Legacy

Many histories of detective fiction mention Allen as an innovator. The illustrious Colonel Clay is a precursor of other gentleman rogue characters; he notably bears a strong resemblance to Maurice Leblanc's

Arsène Lupin Arsène Lupin () is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine '' Je sais tout''. The first ...

, introduced some years later. Both ''Miss Cayley's Adventures'' and ''Hilda Wade'' feature early female detectives. The Scene of the Crime Festival, an annual festival celebrating Canadian mystery fiction, takes place annually on Wolfe Island, Ontario, near Kingston, Allen's birthplace and honors Allen. A metal arch commemorating Allen, was designed by Lucy Quinnell and installed at the entrance to Allen Court in

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

, Surrey in 2013.

Quotes

"What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our boys' schooling interfere with their education!"

Partial bibliography

Books

*(1877
''Physiological Esthetics''
*(1879
''The Colour-Sense: Its Origin and Development''
*(1881
''Evolutionist at Large''
*(1881
''Vignettes from Nature''
*(1882
''The Colours of Flowers''
*(1883)
Colin Clout's Calendar
' *(1883) ''Flowers and Their Pedigrees'' *(1884) ''Philistia''. Allen's FIRST NOVEL *(1884) ''Strange Stories''. Short Stories *(1885) ''Babylon''. A novel in 3 volumes *(1885
''Charles Darwin''
(English Worthies) *(1886) ''For Mamie's Sake'' *(1886) ''In All Shades'' *(1887) ''The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories''. Short Stories *(1888) ''This Mortal Coil: A Novel'' *(1888
''Force and Energy''
*(1888) ''The Devil's Die'' *(1888) ''The White Man's Foot'' *(1889) ''Falling in Love'' *(1889) ''The Tents of Shem'' *(1890) ''Wednesday the Tenth'' *(1890
''The Great Taboo''
*(1891) ''Dumaresq's Daughter'' *(1891) ''What's Bred in the Bone'' *(1892) ''Pallinghurst Barrow''. Short Story. *(1892) ''The Duchess of Powysland'' *(1893) ''The Scallywag'' *(1893) ''Michael's Crag'' *(1894) ''The Lower Slopes'' *(1894) ''Post-Prandial Philosophy'' *(1895) ''The British Barbarians'' *(1895
''At Market Value''
*(1895
''The Story of the Plants''
*(1895) ''The Desire of the Eyes'' *(1895) '' The Woman Who Did'' *(1896) ''The Jaws of Death'' *(1896) ''A Bride from the Desert'' *(1896) ''Under Sealed Orders'' *(1896) ''Moorland Idylls'' *(1897
Kalee's Shrine
*(1897) '' An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay'' *(1897)
The Evolution of the Idea of God
' *(1897)
Paris
' (Grant Allen's Historical Guides) *(1897)
Florence
' (Grant Allen's Historical Guides) *(1897)
Cities of Belgium
' (Grant Allen's Historical Guides) *(1897) ''The Type-writer Girl'' (as Olive Pratt Rayner) *(1897)
Tom, Unlimited
' (as Martin Leach Warborough) *(1898) In 1899 an edition was published by George Newnes Ltd (see e.g. ; ) See also: review in: '' The Zoologist'', 4th series, vol. 3 (1899), issue 691 (January), p. 33/4. Many later editions were published. *(1898) ''The Incidental Bishop'' *(1898)
Venice
'. (Grant Allen's Historical Guides) *(1899) ''The European Tour'' *(1899) ''A Splendid Sin'' *(1899) ''Miss Cayley's Adventures''. Detective novel *(1899) ''Twelve Tales: With a Headpiece, a Tailpiece, and an Intermezzo'' *(1900) '' Hilda Wade''. Detective novel finished by Arthur Conan Doyle *(1900) ''Linnet'' *(1901) ''The Backslider'' *(1901
''In Nature's Workshop''
*(1908) ''Evolution in Italian Art'' *(1909) ''The Hand of God'' *(1909
''The Plants''

Selected articles

*(1878
"Hellas and Civilization,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLIII, pp. 156–170 *(1878
"Nation-making: A Theory of National Characters,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLIII, pp. 580–591 *(1880
"Why Keep India?,"
''The Contemporary Review'', Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 544–556 *(1880
"The Growth of Sculpture,"
''The Cornhill Magazine'', Vol. XLII, pp. 273–293 *(1880
"The English Chronicle,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLVI, pp. 543–559 *(1880
"The Venerable Bede,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLIX, pp. 84–100 *(1880
"The Dog's Universe,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLIX, pp. 287–301 *(1880
"Evolution and Geological Time,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCXLIX, pp. 563–579 *(1881
"The Story of Wulfgeat,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLI, pp. 551–561 *(1882
"An English Shire,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLII, pp. 49–70 *(1882
"The Welsh in the West Country,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLIII, pp. 179–197 *(1882
"The Colours of Flowers,"
''The Cornhill Magazine'', Vol. XLV, pp. 19–34 *(1882
"An English Weed,"
''The Cornhill Magazine'', Vol. XLV, pp. 542–554 *(1883
"Honeysuckle,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLV, pp. 313–322 *(1884
"The Garden Snail,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLVI, pp. 25–34 *(1884
"Our Debt to Insects,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLVI, pp. 452–469 *(1886
"A Thinking Machine,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLX, pp. 30–41 *(1889
"From Africa,"
''Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. CCLXVII, pp. 547–557 *(1890) "The Girl of the Future," ''Universal Review'', Vol. VII, p. 57 *(1891
"Democracy and Diamonds,"
''The Contemporary Review'', Vol. LIX, pp. 669–677

Sources

* * * * * * * Includes Grant Allen.

References

* *

External links

The Grant Allen Website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Grant 1848 births 1899 deaths Canadian agnostics Canadian science writers Canadian male novelists Canadian non-fiction writers Writers from Kingston, Ontario Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Irish descent Charles Darwin biographers Male feminists Pre-Confederation Ontario people Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) 19th-century Canadian novelists Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Deaths from liver cancer in England 19th-century Canadian male writers Canadian socialist feminists Canadian male non-fiction writers Novelists from Ontario