Paul Marshall Allen was born into a Quaker family in 1913 in upstate New York. The life that followed was as varied outwardly as it was deeply committed inwardly to following the anthroposophical path of knowledge.
Allen was the first anthroposophic travelling lecturer in North America, helping to unify the Anthroposophic Society in its early days. He was involved in publishing Steiner's works and compiling A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology, before moving to Europe where he and his wife Joan deRis Allen worked in Camphill villages.