Grant Allen

Born Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, he studied in England and France and in his mid twenties became a professor at Queens College in Jamaica.

Although his father was a Protestant minister, Allen became an agnostic and a socialist. 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.

In 1895, his scandalous book titled The Woman Who Did became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock.

Grant Allen died at his home on Hindhead, Haslemere[?], Surrey, England on October 25, 1899.

Partial bibliography:

• Philistia - (1884)
• The Devil's Die[?]- (1888)
• The White Man's Foot[?] - (1888)
• The Great Taboo[?] - (1891)
• The British Barbarians[?] - (1895)
• The Woman Who Did - (1895)
• The Evolution of the Idea of God[?] - (1897)

Additional reading:

• Barbara Arnett Melchiori[?], Grant Allen: The Downward Path which Leads to Fiction[?] (Rome: Bulzoni Editore, 2000), ISBN: 88-8319-526-4

External link:

• The Grant Allen Website (http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/english/GA/GAHome.htm) (and there are many more on the Net)