The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-07-24
JAMES LANE ALLEN.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE BE-.
,JNo. W. FOX, JR.
Begins Life as u Teacher but Gives This
Up to Enter Upon q Literary Career
Kentucky claims place for him amongst
the Foremost Southern Writer'S.
lIno. ". roz. IL. In The Writer

States, onc'after another, have been CIV
ing to the lovers of fiction each one or
more writer's of distinction; and abreast
with the foremost ofthis goodly company,
Kentucky has lately begun to claim
place for James Lane Allen.
Mr. Allen began his career as writer
several years ago in Harper's Monthly
and the Century Magazine with n series
Of illustrated articles, descriptive of life,
character, and social institutions in Ken
lucky. The matter in them was fresh
and Of intense interest, not only here, but
in England !; the spirit was scholarly, i'm
partial, and deeply sympathetic. They
appealed to The general reader by the
broad culture evident behind them, and
they were marked by a statelincss of style
almost old-fashioned and a treatment
equally philosophical and poetic. AT the
same time a number Of brilliant letters,
chiefly on Southern subjects, were coming
occasionally poem appeared in Harper's,
the Atlantic, or Lippincott's, or an essay,
critical or humorous, in the Critic or the
Forum. So that Mr.. Allen was widely
known as critic and essayist before the
first of his striking tales, published re-
Gently under the title of HFlntc and Vio-
lin," came to print. Once begun, these
last came rapidly; the tender picture OF
quaint relations between master and slave
in the "Two Kentucky Gentlemen Of the
Old School," the broken heroic figure of
"Old King Solomon Of Kentucky" whose
royal rags were but once lifted from the
DUST "The White Cowl" and "Sister
Dolorosa passionate prOte is,
whether or not the writer meant them for
such, against the ideals Of monastic and
conventual life-protests that were keenly
felt throughout the Catholic world; the
story of "Posthumous Fame" which
might have come from the pen of Haw-
thornc; and the subtle fusion of humor
and tears in "Flute and Violin" These
stories unfolded creative power rarely
allied with faculty for criticism so strong
that it seemed already supreme.
By birth, rearing, and education, MIR.
Allen is Kentuckan. He was born sew
o,,l ,oo.e I,oforo +Lc out lrool- IF tho
civil war, on Blue Grass farm near Lex
ingtOn, Kentucky, and not far from the
spot whore the generations of his family
hrd lived since the first emigration from
Virginia. His ancestry-on his fathers
side - leads back to Colonel William
Payne, Of Virginia, m officer Of the
Revolution; on his mothers, to Ponnsyl-
vania Scotch-Irish stock Of the same
period - his great-grandfathe xhaving
been killed during the Revolutionary
struggle.
His boyhood was spent at the old home
stead, and was much like the life of every
boy in the Blue Grass region to-day, ex-
cept that love Of reading was early de-
veioped and carefully tostercd by his
mother, to whom he pays reverential
tribute in the dedication to his stories.
Being much alone, he spent his days
with books, or in the woods and fields.
where deep love grew unconsciously
within him for the gentle landscapes, that
are painted in story and sketch with such
truth and tenderness.
Of the world outside he knew little un-
til he was sent to the Kentucky Univer
sitv, once the Trnnsylvania University
the first college founded West Of the AL
leghanies, and during the last thrce-quar-
tiers of century the Alma Mater Of many
men distinguished in the history of the
country.
The classical department was co-extcn-
sive with that Of the best American col
leges, and TO the classics he gave especial
energy. Finishing at the head Of his
class, he took IL post graduate course, and
received the degree of Master Of Arts.
His first intention was to fit himself for
a professorship of the Latin or the Greek
language, and he had as a possible final
aim the science Of comparative philology
He has laid the foundation of this study
by a course of instruction in Greek, Latin,
French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and
his wish was to seek better opportunities
in Germany.
Compelled, meanwhile, to postpone this
step, he taught in several Southern COL
leses; but, as he himself says, "liking col
lege work always less and literature al
ways more" he gave up teaching alto
gether, and began to write. With DELHI
crate purpose and characteristic thorough
ness he set about fitting himself for the
work that not yet is done. No State was
richer than his own in material for fc-
tion-the field was virgin soil-and he
turned to it with the love of his own land,
that is with most kentuckians little less
than passion.
The first step, then, was the series of
descriptive articles already mentioned
written as he says, "to train his eye to
see and his hand to report things as they
were" Serving this purpose, they did
vastly more. They preserved historical
matter that otherwise would have been
lost; for much Of the work was purely
original, and the material was gotten
slowly and with great care from mouths
that are now dumb They gave him a
knowledge that no other man has of his
future theme-Kentucky life and charac-
ter-a theme in which fact is as romantic
as tradition; and they helped him bend to
the plant uses Of fiction style that in
the classroom was formal, colorless and
philosophic.
These stories came naturally-as flow
ers in garden well tilled-only not with
so much joyousness and SO little toll.
So, too, they are wrought with the most
patient care; and upon the evidence of
this fact rest the chief criticisms urged
against Mr.. Aliens work. There are few
writer's whose early faults Of style are not