Charles Richards Allen
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Charles Richards Allen (3 May 1885 – 14 March 1962)[1] was a New Zealand author. He was the son of politician and diplomat James Allen.[2][3] Despite blindness, he published three novels set in England and three set in New Zealand, as well as assorted plays and poetry.[4] He also edited a collection of short stories, Tales by New Zealanders.[4]
Allen was born in London and came to Dunedin as a child.[1] He was educated at Otago Boys' High School.[5] He enrolled at the University of Cambridge, but dropped out due to his deteriorating eyesight.[1] He subsequently trained for the clergy, and served as a deacon at All Saints' Church, Dunedin from 1909 to 1916.[1] In 1916 he resigned from the church, having become totally blind, and turned to literary work. He wrote by dictation, or by typing and having his amanuensis polish the manuscript.[1] His early work was set in England, where he had lived from 1919 to 1926.[6] His later work was set in New Zealand (and specifically Dunedin), and was semi-autobiographical. In 1941 almost all copies of his final novel, The Young Pretender, were destroyed in London by a German bombing raid,[7] and after that he focused on writing poetry and literary criticism.[1]: 22 In 1950 he began publishing a literary magazine, "The Wooden Horse",[8] but it failed in 1951 after eight issues.[1]: 24
In December 1949 he married Florence Stubbs in Dunedin.[9]
