Nevins, << NEHV ihnz, >> Allan (1890-1971), an American historian and educator, twice was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage won the prize in 1933, and Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration received the award in 1937. He won the Bancroft Prize and the Scribner Centenary Prize for The Ordeal of the Union (1947). Nevins’ works are noted for being well balanced and thorough, with a distinctive literary style.
His John D. Rockefeller, a biography published in 1940, became very popular. It was revised and republished in 1953 as Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist. Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill completed Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company, a study of Henry Ford, in 1954.
In addition to his histories and biographies, Nevins also edited collections of the letters of noted historical people. He completed his first book, Life of Robert Rogers, in 1914, and followed it with more than 50 other volumes. His other books include The American States During and After the Revolution (1924), Fremont: The West’s Greatest Adventurer (1927), A Brief History of the United States (1942), The Emergence of Lincoln (1950), and Herbert H. Lehman and His Era (1963).
Nevins was born on May 20, 1890, in Camp Point, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois. He wrote editorials for the New York Evening Post from 1913 to 1923 and wrote for the magazine The Nation from 1913 to 1918. Nevins joined the staff of the New York Sun in 1924, and The (New York) World in 1925. He was a professor of history at Cornell University from 1927 to 1928, and at Columbia University from 1931 to 1958. In 1958, he became a senior fellow of research at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Nevins lectured on American history at several universities in other nations. He served as a special representative for the Office of War Information in Australia and New Zealand in 1943 and 1944, during World War II. Nevins died on March 5, 1971.
