Illustrator, lithographer and etcher James Edmund Allen was born in Louisiana, Missouri and raised in Montana. He studied drawing and painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, then went to New York for further studies at theArt Students’ League, the Grand Central School of Art, and the Hans Hoffman School. He studied with Joseph Pennell and William Auerbach-Levy.

In the years prior to World War I, Allen worked as an illustrator for Doubleday, Page and Company, and contributed freelance work to leading periodicals including The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s Magazine. He enlisted as a pilot during the war, and returned to his career after discharge. In 1925, Allen studied in Paris where he explored and perfected various printmaking techniques.

He returned to New York during the Depression and worked as a commercial artist; during that period his work won widespread recognition, and Allen received prizes from New York’s Salmagundi Club, the Society of American Etchers, and the Philadelphia Print Club. He exhibited his work in galleries throughout the 1930s, including at the Kennedy and Grand Central Galleries. Allen later exhibited and acted as a juror for exhibitions at the Society of American Etchers. He died in New York City.