PALLEN, CONDÉ BENOIST

Editor; b. St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 5, 1858; d. New York City, May 26, 1929. His parents were Montrose A., a physician and teacher of medicine, and Anne (Benoist) Pallen, daughter of a St. Louis banker and a descendant of the Chevalier Benoist who served with Montcalm in the French and Indian War. After graduating from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Pallen received a doctorate (1885) from St. Louis University and taught there briefly before continuing his studies in Rome. After his return to St. Louis he was editor of Church Progress (1887–97) and served as Catholic revisory editor for two general encyclopedias. He joined a small group of scholars to project the first comprehensive Catholic encyclopedia in the English language, serving as an organizer of the board of editors (1904–05) and as managing editor (1905–13); The Catholic Encyclopedia (16 v., 1907–14; supplement, 1922) became the authoritative international work of reference on the constitution, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church. As president of Encyclopedia Press, Inc. (1913–20), he was later associated with other publishing ventures, including the New Catholic Dictionary (1929).

Pallen was an advocate of conservative economic and social views and served as chairman of the department of subversive movements of the National Civic Federation. Leo XIII honored him with the medal pro ecclesia et pontifice and Pius XI named him a Knight of St. Gregory. His published works include numerous articles and The Philosophy of Literature (1897), New Rubaiyat (1898), Epochs of Literature (1898), The Feast of Thalarchus (1901), Death of Sir Launcelot and Other Poems (1902), The Meaning of the Idylls of the King (1904), Collected Poems (1915), Education of Boys (1916), The Story of Literature (1917), Crucible Island (1919), As Man to Man : The Adventures of a Commuter (1927), Ghost House (1928), and The King's Coil (1928).

[f. x. gerrity]