Henry Wilson Allen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Henry Wilson Allen | |
| Born: | September 12, 1912 Kansas City, Missouri |
|---|---|
| Died: | October 16, 1991 Van Nuys, California |
| Occupation: | Writer, Screenwriter |
| Genres: | Western fiction Animation |
Henry Wilson Allen (September 12, 1912-October 16, 1991), was an American author and screenwriter. He used several different psuedonyms for his works. His 50+ novels of the American West were published under the pen names Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen's screenplays and scripts for animated shorts were credited to Heck Allen and Henry Allen.
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[edit] Biography
Henry Wilson Allen was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Before he began his writing career he worked variously as a stablehand, shop clerk, and gold miner.[1] In 1937 he began working as a contract screenwriter for MGM animation division. While his early work was for Harman and Ising's "Barney Bear" series, his longest collaboration was with director Tex Avery. Allen was credited as story artist on many classic Avery shorts, included Swing Shift Cinderella, King-Size Canary, and The First Bad Man, among many others. Allen downplayed his contributions to the shorts, claiming that Avery merely used him as a sounding board for hiw own ideas.[2]
Allen's career as a novelist began in 1952, with the publication of his first Western No Survivors. Allen, afraid that the studio would disapprove of his moonlighting, used a pen-name to avoid trouble.[3] He would go on to publish over 50 novels, eight of which were adapted for the screen. Allen was a five-time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and a recipient of the Levi Strauss Award for lifetime achievement.
Allen died of pneumonia on October 16, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. He was 79.
[edit] Partial bibliography
- No Survivors, 1952
- Death of a Legend, 1954
- The Big Pasture, 1955
- To Follow a Flag, 1955
- Who Rides with Wyatt, 1955 (filmed as Young Billy Young, 1969)
- Red Brother and White, 1955
- The Fourth Horseman, 1956
- The North Star, 1956 (filmed as Tashunga (also released as The North Star), 1996)
- The Texas Rangers, 1957
- The Seven Men at Mimbres Springs, 1960
- The Feleen Brand, 1962
- From Where the Sun Now Stands, 1962
- MacKenna's Gold, 1963 (filmed as Mackenna's Gold, 1969)
- In the Land of the Mandans, 1965
- The Gates of the Mountains, 1966 (Spur Award winner)
- The Last Warpath, 1967
- Custer's Last Stand: The Story of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1968
- One More River to Cross, 1968
- Sons of the Western frontier, 1968
- Genesis Five, 1968
- Alias Butch Cassidy, 1969
- Outlaws and Legends, 1969
- Maheo's Children: The Legend of Little Dried River, 1970
- Starbuck, 1972
- Chiricahua, 1973 (Spur Award winner)
- The Bear Paw Horse, 1974
- The Raiders, 1974
- Sex and Pain, 1975
- I, Tom Horn, 1976
- From Where the Twilight Zone, 1976
- Summer of the Gun, 1978
- The Squaw Killer, 1983
- The Ballad of Billy Bonney, 1984
- The Day Fort Larking Fell, 1988
- Reckoning at Yankee Flat, 1989
- Pillars of the Sky, 1991
- Frontier Fury, 1992
- San Juan Hill, 1996
- The Crossing, 1996
- Jesse James: Death of a Legend, 1996
- The Hunting of Tom Horn, 1999
- Custer, 1999
- The Legend of Sotoju Mountain, 2004
- Winter Shadows, 2003
- The Hunkpapa Scout, 2004
- The Scout, 2005
- Medicine Road, 2006
- Black Apache, 2006
- Blind Canon, 2007
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1]"Finding Aid for the Henry Wilson Allen Papers, 1955-1985", Online Archive of California website. Last accessed 03/21/2007.
- ^ [2]"Oh, Heck!", Something Old Nothing new blog. Last accessed 03/21/2007.
- ^ [3]Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine website, entry for 3/15/2005.
