Walter Ernest Allen

About

Author associated with Britain's Birmingham Group, a generational group of writers during WWII. His career was incredibly diverse. He produced a number of novels following his graduation from University in rapid-fire succession. Throughout his more than 50-year career, he would work as a professor, editor, broadcaster, and author of many revered non-fiction works featuring his gift for sharp and down-to-earth literary criticism. The most notable of his life's' works a collection critiques: The English Novel: a Short Critical History published in 1951. 

Before Fame

Born in Birmingham, he attended King Edward's Grammar school before continuing on at the University of Birmingham. He began to write fiction and teach after graduation. These positions took him across the pond to America, teaching at notable schools such as Vassar College in New York before settling on a position at the New University of Ulster, in Northern Ireland in 1967.

Trivia

He was so prolific as a writer that by the time of his death, he'd accumulated a large pile of works left in manuscript. He even started writing and editing poetry at the very tail end of his life.

Family Life

He married and had four children. 

Associated With

He went to university with poets Henry Reed and Louis Macneice.