Strangers to Us All Lawyers and Poetry

Willis Boyd Allen
(1855-1938)
Maine & Massachusetts

George Bancroft Griffith (ed.), The Poets of Maine 796 (Portland, Maine: Elwell, Pickard & Co., 1888):

[Willis Boyd Allen] was born at Kittery Point, Me., July 9, 1855; graduated at Harvard, class of 1878, and at Boston University Law School, 1881. He has practiced law since that year, and has for some time been editor of The Cottage Hearth, and co-editor of Our Sunday Afternoon.

Allen's literary focus was primarily on stories for young people.

Upon Allen's death, the New York Times (September 12, 1938) published the following obituary notice:

Willis Boyd Allen of Boston, lawyer, author and editor, died yesterday at Crawford Notch, N.H., at the age of 83.

Mr. Allen was born in Kittery Point, Me., July 9, 1855, attended Boston Latin School and was graduated from Harvard in 1878. He received his LL.B. from Boston University in 1881.

After practicing law for a short period he retired in 1888 to devote his time to writing. His work appeared in many magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, Century, Scribner's, Harper's, Lippincott's, Munsey's and North American Review. . . .

From 1881 to 1893 Mr. Allen edited The Cottage Hearth Magazine, The Wellspring and Our Sunday Afternoon.

Poetry

Willis Boyd Allen, In the Morning (New York: Randolph, 1890) [online text]

Poetry: Edited Work

Willis Boyd Allen, The Violet Book (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs, 1909)

Writings

Willis Boyd Allen, The Pine Cone Stories (Boston: Lothrop and Company, 5th ed., 1885) [online text](Boston D. Lothrop and Company, 3rd ed., 1886)

_____________, Christmas at Surf Point (Boston: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 1886)(Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1886)

_____________, Silver Rags (Boston: D. Lothrop, 1886)

_____________, The Mountaineers (Boston: Congregational Sunday-school and Pub. Society, 1887)

_____________, The Danger Signal (Boston: Congregational Sunday-school and Pub. Society, 1887)

_____________, The Northern Cross, or, Randolph's Last Year at the Boston Latin School(Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1887) [online text]

_____________, Creeping Jenny (Boston: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 1888)

_____________, Kelp: A Story of the Isles of Shoals (Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1888) [online text]

_____________, Prince's Pine (Boston/Chicago: Pilgrim Press, 1888)

_____________, Christmas Evergreens (Boston: Congregational Sunday-school and Pub. Society, 1889)

_____________, Fir Boughs (Boston: Congregation Sunda-school and Pub. Society, 1889)

_____________, Cloud and Cliff or, Summer Days at the White Mountains (Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1889)

_____________, The Red Mountain of Alaska (Boston: Estes and Lauriat 1889)([n.d.]: S.W. Partridge & Co. Ltd., 1900)

[publ. also under the title, The Gold-Hunters of Alaska (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1889)(New York: H.M. Caldwell, 1896)

_____________, The Lion City of Africa: A Story of Adventure (Boston: D. Lothrop, 1890)

_____________, The Boyhood of John Kent (Boston: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 1891)

_____________, John Brownlow's Folks (New York: D. Lothrop, 1891)

_____________, Gulf and Glacier: or, The Percivals in Alaska (Boston: Lothrop, 1892)

_____________, The Pineboro Quartette (New York: H.M. Caldwell, 1893)(Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1898)

_____________, Lost on Umbagog (Boston: Lothrop Publishing Co., 1894) [online text]

_____________, Christmas on Wheels (Boston: [n.d], 1895)

_____________, The Mammoth Hunters (Boston: Lothrop, 1895)

_____________, A Son of Liberty, or, The Spirit of Our Fathers (Boston: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 1896)

_____________, The Great Island, or, Cast Away in Papua (Boston: Lothrop Publishing Co., 1897)

_____________, Called to the Front (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1897)

_____________, Around the Yule Log (Boston/Chicago: Pilgrim Press, 1898)

_____________, Cleared for Action, A Story of the Spanish-American War of 1898 (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1899)(London: J.F.Shaw, 1904)

_____________, Navy Blue: A Story of Cadet Life in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis (New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1899)(E.P. Dutton & Company, 1901)

_____________, The Head of Pasht (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1900) [online text]

_____________, Under the Pine-tree Flag (Boston/Chicago: Pilgrim Press, 1902)

_____________, Play Away! A Story of the Boston Fire Department (Boston: D. Estes & Company, 1902) [online text]

_____________, Sword and Plowshare (Boston/New York: Pilgrim Press, 1904)

_____________, The North Pacific: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1905)(E.P. Dutton, 1910) [online text]

Research Resources

Miscellaneous Letters
Maine Historical Society Library
Portland, Maine