 Allen was the assistant editor of the Early Modern English Dictionary at the University of Michigan from 1933 to 1938.Allen asked Sanford Brown Meech, a colleague at Michigan, to collaborate with her in editing "The Book of Margery Kempe".However, Meech began mistreating Allen, and attempted to take over the edition, and eventually, the work was issued in two volumes, as the collaborators could not agree' on account of Meech's misogynistic attitude to Allen.