| Intro | American author, poet, reader |
| A.K.A. | Esther Lavilla Allen, Lavilla Esther Ostrander |
| Was |
Author Poet |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 28 May 1834 |
| Death |
11 November 1903 (aged 69 years) |
Lavilla E. Allen or Esther Lavilla Allen (May 28, 1834 – November 11, 1903) was an American author, poet, and reader. She experienced a gratifying degree of success with her first book of poems. She wrote volumes of missionary and temperance literature, and hundreds of verses upon various subjects at the request of friends. Her works were characterized by high ideals of life, by sincere and noble pursuits, and a pervading purity. She was also earnestly interested in the work of missions, Sunday school and educational work, charitable and reformatory enterprises.
Early years and education
Lavilla Esther Ostrander was born in Ithaca, New York, May 28, 1834. While she was a child, her parents removed to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where her youth was passed. She was educated in the seminary of that town. She wrote verses in her youth.
Career
In 1851, she was married William Schuyler Allen and lived in Hillsdale, Michigan. She began her literary career in earnest in 1870, writing stories, sketches and poems for publication, which were widely copying. She contributed to the Ladies’ Repository, the Masonic Magazine, the Chicago Interior, the Advance, the Northwestern Christian Advocate, and other prominent periodicals. Much of her work was devoted to temperance and missionary lines, but she also wrote countless poems for various occasions. Besides her work as a writer, she was a fine reader, often reading her poetical productions in public, mainly before college societies. Allen did not collect her productions, although there were enough of them to fill a number of volumes.
She died November 11, 1903 and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Hillsdale, Michigan.
Selected works
- Aunt Betsy’s pumpkin pie and other poems, 1878