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“A” is for Allen, William Hervey, Jr. (1889-1949)

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“A” is for Allen, William Hervey, Jr. (1889-1949). Poet, novelist. A native of Pennsylvania, Allen was educated at the University of Pittsburg and Harvard. In 1919, he accepted a position at Porter Military Academy in Charleston. His move to Charleston coincided with the beginnings of the Poetry Society of South Carolina, which he helped organize. In 1922, he and Dubose Heyward published Carolina Chansons: Legends of the Low Country, a book of local color verse that received national acclaim. Allen left Charleston in 1925 and moved to New York. Although he spent only six years in South Carolina, his association with the Poetry Society came at a crucial time in his development as a writer. In 1933 William Hervey Allen, Jr., published his historical novel Anthony Adverse, which sold 395,000 copies in its first year.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.