Richard Harding Davis
Richard Harding Davis was an influential American writer and war correspondent born on April 18, 1864, in Philadelphia. He came from a literary background; his mother was a noted novelist, and his father was a lawyer and newspaper editor. Davis began his writing career during his undergraduate years at Lehigh University and later refined his skills at the Philadelphia Press and the New York Evening Sun. In the late 19th century, he became a symbol of optimism and adventure, not only through his engaging fictional characters, such as Courtlandt Van Bibber, but also through his travel narratives that explored various regions, including the American West and Europe.
Davis's literary pursuits were complemented by a successful career as a war correspondent, where he covered significant conflicts such as the Greco-Turkish War and the Spanish-American War. He led a dynamic life, marrying twice and fathering a daughter. His writings provided valuable insights into a transformative era in American history, coinciding with the nation's growing international influence. Davis's legacy continues to be recognized for its contribution to literature and journalism, reflecting both his adventurous spirit and the historical context of his time. He passed away from a heart attack on April 11, 1916.
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Subject Terms
Richard Harding Davis
- Born: April 18, 1864
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: April 11, 1916
- Place of death: Mount Kisco, New York
Biography
Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia on April 18, 1864. To some extent, his parentage determined his course in life; his mother Rebecca Blaine Harding Davis was a celebrated novelist, and his father Lemuel Clarke Davis was a lawyer and newspaper editor. Writing was in his blood; and he experimented with a number of literary forms as early as his undergraduate years at Lehigh University, where he wrote for the college magazine. Without finishing his degree but with further study as a special student in history and politics at Johns Hopkins University, Davis eventually used his father’s influence to gain a job as a newspaperman.
He spent three years on the staff of the Philadelphia Press honing his craft, and in 1889, he took a position at the New York Evening Sun and the next year with Harper’s Weekly. In the Gay Nineties, Davis, who was himself a handsome and charismatic man, came to symbolize the optimism of the age. This good-hearted confidence can be seen in his fictional creations, like Courtlandt Van Bibber, the title character of an early collection of his short stories, and in his own literary persona, the reporter-adventurer who assumes a central role in a series of travel narratives. Starting with The West from a Car- Window, a chronicle of a personal tour of the American West, Davis published a number of volumes devoted to his travel adventures in various parts of the globe, including separate works on England, the Mediterranean, Paris, and Latin America. From these trips came the material for most of his subsequent short stories, novels, and plays. These literary efforts, however, shared his attention from 1895 to 1915 with his work as a war correspondent. In succession, he covered firsthand the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Boer War in 1900, the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, and the first year of World War I (1915). His active lifestyle left very little time to cultivate relationships, but Davis did marry twice: first to the Chicago socialite Cecil Clark in 1899, and after their divorce, to the actress Bessie McCoy in 1912. With McCoy, whose given name was Elizabeth Genevieve McEvoy, he had a daughter Hope Davis in 1915. Richard Harding Davis died from a heart attack on April 11, 1916.
Like Ernest Hemingway in the twentieth century, Davis was a reporter-novelist whose most notable character may very well have been himself. He had a tendency to look for heroes in his life and work; sometimes he assumed that role himself; at other times, he gave the laurels to others, such as Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. Davis is credited with having made Roosevelt famous and helped launch his political career. The work of Davis is important today for the light it sheds on an important period in American history, a time when the country first began to exercise its power on an international scale.