Henry Wilson Allen was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

. He used several different pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s 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.

Biography

Henry Wilson Allen was born in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. Before he began his writing career he worked variously as a stablehand, shop clerk, and gold miner. In 1937 he began working as a contract screenwriter for MGM animation division. While his early work was for Harman and Ising

Harman and Ising

Hugh Harman and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising were an American animation team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios...

's "Barney Bear

Barney Bear

Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet....

" series, his longest collaboration was with director Tex Avery

Tex Avery

Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...

. Allen was credited as story artist on many classic Avery shorts, included Swing Shift Cinderella

Swing Shift Cinderella

Swing Shift Cinderella is an animated cartoon short subject. It is in the same vein as Red Hot Riding Hood. Frank Graham voiced the wolf, and Colleen Collins voiced Cinderella.-Plot:...

, King-Size Canary

King-Size Canary

King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:An unnamed alley cat searches for food in some garbage cans late at night...

, and The First Bad Man

The First Bad Man

The First Bad Man is an American animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and features narration by singing cowboy Tex Ritter. It was released by MGM on September 30, 1955.-Synopsis:...

, among many others. Allen downplayed his contributions to the shorts, claiming that Avery merely used him as a sounding board for his own ideas.

Allen's career as a novelist began in 1952, with the publication of his first Western

Western fiction

Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...

 No Survivors. Allen, afraid that the studio would disapprove of his moonlighting, used a pen-name to avoid trouble. He would go on to publish over 50 novels, eight of which were adapted for the screen. Most of these were published under one or the other of the pseudonyms Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen was a five-time winner of the Spur Award

Spur Award

The Spur Award is an annual literary prize awarded by the Western Writers of America. Founded in 1953 with only four categories , the award today has expanded to include the following categories:...

 from the Western Writers of America

Western Writers of America

Western Writers of America, founded 1953, promotes literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional western fiction, the more than five hundred current members also include historians and other non-fiction writers as well as authors...

 and a recipient of the Levi Strauss Award for lifetime achievement.

Allen died of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 on October 26, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. He was 79.

Partial bibliography

• No Survivors, 1952
• Death of a Legend, 1954
• The Tall Men, 1954
• The Big Pasture, 1955
• To Follow a Flag, 1955
• Who Rides with Wyatt, 1955 (filmed as Young Billy Young
  Young Billy Young
  Young Billy Young is a 1969 western movie starring Robert Mitchum and featuring Angie Dickinson, Robert Walker, Jr. , David Carradine, Jack Kelly , and Paul Fix. The film was written by Heck Allen and Burt Kennedy, and directed by Kennedy...
  
  , 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
• Yellowstone Kelly, 1958 (Yellowstone Kelly
  Yellowstone Kelly
  Yellowstone Kelly is a 1959 Warner Bros Western Technicolor movie based upon a novel by Heck Allen, with a screenplay by Burt Kennedy starring Clint Walker as Yellowstone Luther Kelly, and directed by Gordon Douglas...
  
  , filmed in 1959)
• Journey to Shiloh, 1960 (Journey to Shiloh, filmed in 1968)
• 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
  Mackenna's Gold
  Mackenna's Gold is a 1969 western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv, and Julie Newmar...
  
  , 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

Attributed quotes

• Further specificity, citation or even debunking (of course) welcomed

“The wishbone will never replace the backbone.”

External links

• Obituary in the New York Times