After high school in Baltimore, Maryland, Gordon Allen lived on Barren Island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and worked as a hunting and fishing guide while helping to run the island’s lodge. He then studied for a year at Maryland Institute College of Art, and later at the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

When Allen was in his early 20s, his father invited him to meet his friend Gene Hill, the outdoor writer, in Princeton, New Jersey. Hill invited Allen to produce illustrations for Hill’s next book, Mostly Tailfeathers, and that launched Allen’s career in illustration, largely for book-publishing clients at that time. He says he quickly developed a reputation in the sporting publishing world in New York City. “I supported myself for several years by illustrating, and selling the original drawings helped me make ends meet,” says Allen. “I love books, and was happy to be a part of creating them.” Allen’s lifelong involvement with hunting and fishing gave him familiarity with those subjects, which informed his illustrations.