Allan Nevins - Personal Life

Personal Life

Nevins was born in Camp Point, Illinois, the son of Emma (née Stahl) and Joseph Allan Nevins. He was raised on a farm. Nevins was educated at the University of Illinois, where he earned an M.A. in English in 1913. He worked as a journalist in New York City and began writing books on history. In 1929, he joined the history faculty of Columbia University. In 1939 he succeeded Evarts Boutell Greene, his teacher at Illinois and mentor at Columbia, as the Dewitt Clinton Professor of History there. He was appointed Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1964 to 1965. In 1948 he created the first oral history program to operate on an institutionalized basis in the U.S., which continues as Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. After he retired from Columbia, he relocated to California, where he worked at the Henry E. Huntington Library. He died in Menlo Park, California, in 1971.

With his wife, Mary Fleming (Richardson), he was the grandfather of writer Jane Mayer.