Horace Newton Allen

Horace Newton Allen combined work as a physician, Presbyterian missionary, diplomat, and translator during his years in Korea. Born in Ohio in 1858, he trained in medicine and reached Korea in 1884. His treatment of a royal relative after the Gapsin Coup strengthened his connection with the court and helped establish Chejungwon, an early Western-style hospital. Allen later entered diplomatic service and became the United States minister in Seoul. Korean Tales, published in 1889, gathers stories translated from Korean folklore alongside introductory chapters on the country's people, government, capital, and customs. Its contents include animal legends, accounts of faithful children and lovers, and an early English rendering of the Hong Gil Dong story. Allen also wrote Things Korean and chronological work on Korea's foreign relations. Korean Tales reflects the opportunities and limitations of his position as an early Western resident, preserving translations that influenced English-language awareness of Korean narrative traditions while framing them through his historical perspective.