An American novelist and short story writer whose work, including the novel A Kentucky Cardinal, often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. His work is characteristic of the late-19th century local color era, when writers sought to capture the vernacular in their fiction. Allen has been described as "Kentucky's first important novelist."

Table of Contents

The Reign of Law

Bride of the Mistletoe

A Cathedral Singer

The Choir Invisible

The Mettle of the Pasture

Sister Dolorosa and Posthumous Fame

A Kentucky Cardinal

Aftermath, Part Second of A Kentucky Cardinal

Bride of the Mistletoe-

The first of a trilogy of stories which are to be a study of the inner heart of thinking, feeling, suffering human beings. The scene of the first tale is laid in the forests of Kentucky. A married couple, the father and mother of four children, are introduced to the reader on Christmas Eve.

A Cathedral Singer-

To the Cathedral of St. John the Divine came a lady with fortunes broken. She and her boy had sought out New York as a city of opportunity and generosity. She sang for a pittance, he sold papers. They found the cathedral and the old building where the boys sang, and the choirmaster who could help the boy develop his voice.

A Kentucky Cardinal-

Set in 1850, this novel features a romance between a naturalist and a society girl.

The Mettle of the Pasture-

'The Mettle of the Pasture' is a novel of greatness; it is so far Mr. Allen's masterpiece; a work of beauty and finished art. There can be no question of its supreme place in our literature; there can be no doubt of its wide acceptance and acceptability. More than any of his books it is destined to an enviable popularity.

The Reign of Law-

One of the first American novels to deal openly with religious doubt and Darwinism.