After studying medicine August Alle worked in Estonia as a journalist and lecturer, before he is completely devoted himself to writing.

In his works he drew on his experiences in the revolutionary Petrograd and Tartu in Estonia after the Estonian War of Independence.

August Alle's poetry turned strongly against the fascist tendencies in Europe of that time.

Among the books banned were works of Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Steiner, Artur Adson, Gustav Suits and Marie Under.

From 1946 until his death he was chief editor of the prestigious, though after 1944 Soviet controlled, literary magazine Looming (Estonian for "creation").