Richard Allen

Richard Allen (14 February 1760 - 26 March 1831) was born a slave of Benjamin Chew at Germantown, Pennsylvania, but his family was soon sold to Stockley Sturgis whose plantation was near Dover, Delaware. He eventually (in 1785) bought his own freedom from Sturgis (for $2000 it had taken him five years to save up), and in 1816 he founded the A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia and became its first bishop.

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Richard Allen is the pen name of James Moffat, who produced a number of 'pulp' novels for the UK publishing house New English Library[?] during the 1970s. Many of his stories featured the often violent and sensationalist exploits of a fictional skinhead character, Joe Hawkins. Titles included; Skinhead, Suedehead, Skinhead Escapes, Trouble for skinhead and Skinhead Farewell. Allen also wrote a number of other titles aimed at exploiting various real or invented youth cultures, including Punk Rock, Teeny Bop Idol, Smoothies, Sorts (female versions of 'Smoothies', allegedly), Dragon Skins (Kung Fu fighting skinheads, apparently), Glam and others.

The collected works of Richard Allen have been reissued in a six volume set by ST Publishing[?] [ST Publishing website (http://www.stpublishing.com/richardallentitles)]

Allen's formulaic and sensationalist writing style has been frequently parodied by Anarchist writer and artist Stewart Home.