The Evolutionist at Large

Canadian scientific author and novelist Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (February 24, 1848 - October 25, 1899) received his education in England. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, he actively promoted evolution in public. Allen was born in Kingston, Canada West, close to Wolfe Island (known as Ontario after Confederation). Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant pastor from Dublin, Ireland, was his father. Allen attended Merton College in Oxford and King Edward's School in Birmingham for his education. He joined Queen's Institution, a Jamaican black college, as a professor in his mid-20s. He was influenced by the associationist psychology of Herbert Spencer and Alexander Bain. He produced 30 books between 1884 and 1899, including the controversial The Woman Who Did. The Type-writer Girl and Olive Pratt Rayner were pen names used by English novelist Grant Allen. With the publication of The British Barbarians, he made history in the field of science fiction (1895). On October 25, 1899, Grant Allen passed away from liver cancer at his house in Haslemere, Surrey, England. Before finishing Hilda Wade, he passed away.