Hope Emily Allen

Hope Emily Allen (1883–1960), was an American medievalist who is best known for her research on the 14th-century English mystic Richard Rolle and for her discovery of a manuscript of the Book of Margery Kempe. Her parents, Henry Grosvenor Allen and Portia Allen (born Underhill), had previously lived for a time in the Oneida Community, an experimental group based on socialist principles that broke up in 1880. She graduated in 1905 as one of "The Ten" top scholars. During her time in Britain, she pursued her two lifelong goals: medieval scholarship and feminism. Allen had great concern for women's values and identity, and continued to fight for these issues throughout her life. It was found in a cupboard at Southgate House, Chesterfield, the home of Lt.-Col. William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-Bowdon. Albert Van de Put of the Victoria and Albert Museum borrowed it, and showed it to Hope Emily Allen, who was visiting Britain at the time.

Allen returned to the United States in the 1930s, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she continued to pursue her research and writing, and to carry on correspondence with friends and scholars such as Joan Wake. However, Meech began mistreating Allen, and attempted to take over the edition, and eventually, the work was issued in two volumes, as the collaborators could not agree' on account of Meech's misogynistic attitude to Allen. It was a painful comparison to her earlier active life, of which she had written, "when libraries were closed I walked all day in [King's] Lynn, poking into all the corners both of streets and churches. I am a great believer in the living picture as a stimulus to study."

She eventually returned to her hometown of Oneida, New York, and spent the last years of her life at the Mansion House in Kenwood. She died on July 1, 1960.

Awards and honors In 1929 Allen was awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize of the British Academy for her work on Richard Rolle. In 1946 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Smith College. In 1948, she was inducted into the Medieval Academy of America. In 1960 she was "designated one of the seventy-six most distinguished graduates of Bryn Mawr College".

A significant collection of materials relating to Hope Emily Allen's life can be found at the Bryn Mawr College Library. The papers consist primarily of research notes by Allen, photostats and typescripts of manuscripts, and professional correspondence. Topics include the Book of Margery Kempe, the Ancrene Riwle, and Richard Rolle.