Although Hervey Allen made his reputation as a writer with popular historical fiction, most notably Anthony Adverse (1933), his early writing career was devoted to poetry, most of which was published during the 1920s. This traditional verse, much of it concerned with local color and dominated by philosophical themes, no doubt provided solid apprentice work for the romantic fiction he later wrote.

William Hervey Allen, Jr., was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Hervey and Helen Eby Myers Allen. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1909 but withdrew two years later after suffering a leg injury in sports. After completing his bachelor of science degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1915, he enlisted in an infantry unit of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Active service in 1916 at the Mexican border led to Ballads of the Border, his first published poems. Called to active duty again when the United States...