author
Edith H. (Edith Hedden) Allen
1869–1938
A writer of Protestant mission literature in the early 20th century, she is best known for Home Missions in Action, a survey of religious and social work across the United States. Her writing reflects the reform-minded energy of its era and was published for a church study audience.
1 Audiobook
Home Missions in Action
by Edith H. (Edith Hedden) Allen
About the author
Edith H. Allen, whose full name was Edith Hedden Allen, was born in 1869 and died in 1938. She is chiefly remembered for Home Missions in Action, a work published in 1915 by Fleming H. Revell and issued under the direction of the Council of Women for Home Missions.
The book was part of an interdenominational home mission study course and set out to explain how Christian organizations were working in education, health, social reform, and community life across the United States. That focus makes her writing a useful window into the religious activism and social concerns of the Progressive Era.
Not much biographical detail about her life is readily confirmed from the sources available here, so her published work remains the clearest record of her career. Even so, Home Missions in Action shows her as a thoughtful interpreter of national mission work for general readers and church study groups.