J. W. Allen

Biography

W. Allen, author of “The Back of Beyond,” may as well have submitted his story as anonymous. Appearing in the March 1909 issue of The English Review (Vol. 1 No. 4), Allen is never published again for the rest of The Review’s print life. With his name appearing among those of Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Violet Hunt, Granville Barker, and H. G. Wells, it is understandable how his name and work may have been overlooked by history.

Publishing in England around the same time period was a professor by the name of John William Allen, who published his work as J. W. Allen. Allen was a professor of modern history at Bedford College, University of London. His published works dealt with the history of England and England’s relation to world history, among other topics such as politics and education. It is purely speculation to state that these authors are in fact one and the same, as there is no definitive tie between the two. The chance is even greater that these two writers are separate people when one considers that the initials “J. W.” were very popular in the early twentieth century, and “Allen” was a common last name.

To assume that these two authors are the same J. W. Allen is to say that a modern history professor dabbled in avant-garde short fiction. Though this may not be unheard of, as history professors are allowed their own personal hobbies, the connection is still unlikely.  However, in the one short story published by a J. W. Allen, the history of England plays a major role in the “spiritual cleansing” of the narrator (Peppis, 35). In “The Back of Beyond” the narrator travels through some squalid mining villages and into some ancient farming villages nestled behind the Black Mountains. He seems pleased by their ties to “antiquity,” as they were “more perfect in dignity, untouched by the vulgarity of conscious wealth.” (623).  In “The Back of Beyond” the narrator is escaping industrial, modern England and rediscovering the pastoral, historic England. Perhaps this is the perspective of a modern history professor who has decided to dabble in the art of fiction.