Frederick Lewis Allen

Frederick Lewis Allen 1890-1954, American social historian and editor, b. Boston, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1912; M.A., 1913). He is best remembered for his journalistic but nonetheless penetrating works of social history, including Only Yesterday (1932), Since Yesterday (1940), and The Big Change (1952). After teaching English at Harvard, he was an assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly (1914-16), then managing editor of The Century (1916-17). In 1923 he began working for Harper's Magazine, where he remained until 1953, becoming chief editor in 1941.

Allen, Frederick Lewis (1890–1954), born in Boston and educated at Harvard, served on the staffs of the Atlantic Monthly (1914–16), The Century (1916–1917), and Harper's (1923–53, as editor after 1941). His major books are informal histories of the U.S.: Only Yesterday (1931), about the 1920s; Since Yesterday (1940), about the 1930s; The Lords of Creation (1935), about financial and corporate expansion since the 1890s; and The Big Change (1952), about the first half of the 20th century. He also wrote the text for two anthologies of photographs, The American Procession (1933) and Metropolis (1934).