Clyde Brion Davis
Encyclopedia
Clyde Brion Davis was an American
author and freelance journalist active from the mid-1920s until his death. Davis is best known for his novels The Anointed and The Great American Novel, though he authored more than 15 books.
Clyde Brion Davis was born on May 22, 1894, in Unadilla, Nebraska
, to Charles Nelson and Isabel Brion Davis. His father was a friend and strong supporter of the legendary Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan. A year after the boy's birth, the Davis family moved to Missouri
, where Davis attended schools in Chillicothe and Kansas City. At 14, Davis quit school and was employed in several jobs including printer’s apprentice, steamfitter’s helper, chimney sweep, electrician, detective and journalist.
In 1916, Davis gained his first experience in journalism, working with the Denver Times and Albuquerque Morning Journal. Davis acquired further experience in journalism writing for the Army newspaper The Pontanezan Duckboard while serving in the United States Army Intelligence Corps (1917-1919) during World War I
. Upon his return to the United States, Davis, with the exception of a few months working for the Burns Detective Agency
, spent the years between 1919 and 1937 working for various newspapers, including: Denver Post (1919), Rocky Mountain News (1920-1922), San Francisco Examiner (1921), Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1930), and Buffalo Times (1931-1937).
Davis's fiction efforts were first published by a number of pulp magazines during the 1920s.
In 1926, he married artist and writer Martha Wirt. Their only child, David Brion Davis
, was born on February 16, 1927, in Denver, Colorado
.
Davis resided in Hamburg, New York
in the late 1930s. He wrote a number of novels and short stories before the publication of his novel The Anointed in 1937. The Book of the Month Club
chose The Anointed as its selection for August 1937 and MGM adapted the novel in 1945 to the MGM
movie Adventure
starring Clark Gable
and Greer Garson
. Following the success of The Anointed, Davis left journalism for a career in creative writing. For the most part he focused on writing novels and short stories, other than a brief period of syndicate work in Europe for PM and Knight newspapers in 1941, two months in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and two years as an associate editor for Rinehart and Company (1943-1945). Davis was awarded a Huntington Hartford fellowship for the years 1956-1957. Over his career, he wrote more than 20 novels, including The Great American Novel (1938) and The Rebellion of Leo Maguire (1944).
His memoir The Age of Indiscretion (1950), was a curmudgeonly retort to nostalgia for the "Good Old Days" circa 1900. He argued that the America of the mid-20th century was not only richer and healthier than the America of his boyhood, but also happier and more moral.
In 1946, Davis and his family moved to Salisbury, Connecticut
, where he was an active citizen (serving as Justice of the Peace between 1947 and 1957) until his death in Salisbury on July 19, 1962. His last novel, Shadow of a Day, was published posthumously.
Non-Fiction
Short stories
Archives
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author and freelance journalist active from the mid-1920s until his death. Davis is best known for his novels The Anointed and The Great American Novel, though he authored more than 15 books.
Clyde Brion Davis was born on May 22, 1894, in Unadilla, Nebraska
Unadilla, Nebraska
Unadilla is a village in Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 342 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Unadilla is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 342 people,...
, to Charles Nelson and Isabel Brion Davis. His father was a friend and strong supporter of the legendary Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan. A year after the boy's birth, the Davis family moved to Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, where Davis attended schools in Chillicothe and Kansas City. At 14, Davis quit school and was employed in several jobs including printer’s apprentice, steamfitter’s helper, chimney sweep, electrician, detective and journalist.
In 1916, Davis gained his first experience in journalism, working with the Denver Times and Albuquerque Morning Journal. Davis acquired further experience in journalism writing for the Army newspaper The Pontanezan Duckboard while serving in the United States Army Intelligence Corps (1917-1919) during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Upon his return to the United States, Davis, with the exception of a few months working for the Burns Detective Agency
William J. Burns International Detective Agency
The William J. Burns International Detective Agency was a private detective agency in the United States, which was operated by William J. Burns.-Wheatland Hop Riot:...
, spent the years between 1919 and 1937 working for various newspapers, including: Denver Post (1919), Rocky Mountain News (1920-1922), San Francisco Examiner (1921), Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1930), and Buffalo Times (1931-1937).
Davis's fiction efforts were first published by a number of pulp magazines during the 1920s.
In 1926, he married artist and writer Martha Wirt. Their only child, David Brion Davis
David Brion Davis
David Brion Davis is an American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He is the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He is a...
, was born on February 16, 1927, in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
.
Davis resided in Hamburg, New York
Hamburg (town), New York
Hamburg is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 56,259.The Town of Hamburg is on the western border of the county and is south of Buffalo, New York. Hamburg is one of the "Southtowns" in Erie County...
in the late 1930s. He wrote a number of novels and short stories before the publication of his novel The Anointed in 1937. The Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month Club
The Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
chose The Anointed as its selection for August 1937 and MGM adapted the novel in 1945 to the MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
movie Adventure
Adventure (1945 film)
Adventure is a 1945 film, based on the novel The Anointed by Clyde Brion Davis. Clark Gable and Greer Garson star as a sailor and a librarian...
starring Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and Greer Garson
Greer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
. Following the success of The Anointed, Davis left journalism for a career in creative writing. For the most part he focused on writing novels and short stories, other than a brief period of syndicate work in Europe for PM and Knight newspapers in 1941, two months in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and two years as an associate editor for Rinehart and Company (1943-1945). Davis was awarded a Huntington Hartford fellowship for the years 1956-1957. Over his career, he wrote more than 20 novels, including The Great American Novel (1938) and The Rebellion of Leo Maguire (1944).
His memoir The Age of Indiscretion (1950), was a curmudgeonly retort to nostalgia for the "Good Old Days" circa 1900. He argued that the America of the mid-20th century was not only richer and healthier than the America of his boyhood, but also happier and more moral.
In 1946, Davis and his family moved to Salisbury, Connecticut
Salisbury, Connecticut
Salisbury is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is the northwest-most in the State of Connecticut. The MA-NY-CT Tri-State Marker is located just on the border of Salisbury...
, where he was an active citizen (serving as Justice of the Peace between 1947 and 1957) until his death in Salisbury on July 19, 1962. His last novel, Shadow of a Day, was published posthumously.
Partial bibliography
Fiction- The Anointed (Farrar & RinehartFarrar & RinehartFarrar & Rinehart was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero Wolfe corpus of Rex Stout...
, New York, 1937) - The Great American Novel (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1938)
- Sullivan (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1940)
- Follow the Leader (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1942)
- The Rebellion of Leo McGuire (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1944)
- Stars Incline (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1946)
- Adventure (The World Publishing Company, New York, 1946)
- Jeremy Bell (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1947)
- Temper the Wind (The Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
, September 26, 1948) (A Gold Seal NovelGold Seal NovelGold Seal Novels were illustrated novels covering a wide range of genres published in editions of the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer between 1934 and 1949. They were published as a "complete illustrated novel" as a section of the Inquirer's Sunday edition...
) - Playtime is Over (Arthur BarkerArthur BarkerArthur R. "Doc" Barker was an American criminal, the son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang along with Alvin Karpis....
, 1950) - Thudbury: An American Comedy (J. B. Lippincott CompanyJ. B. Lippincott CompanyJ. B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott.Formed by descendants of the Religious Society of Friends, Joshua Lippincott's company began selling a line of Bibles, prayer books and other religious works before...
, Philadelphia, 1952) - Unholy Uproar, a novel (J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1957)
- The Big Pink Kite (John Day CompanyJohn Day CompanyThe John Day Company was a New York publishing firm that specialized in illustrated fiction and current affairs books and pamphlets from 1926-1968. It published books by, among others, Pearl Buck, Irving Adler, Peggy Adler and Sidney Hook. It was founded by Richard Walsh in 1926 and named after...
, New York, 1960) - Shadow of A Day (John Day Company, New York, 1963)
Non-Fiction
- The Arkansas (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1940) (Rivers of America SeriesRivers of America SeriesThe Rivers of America Series is a landmark series of books on American rivers, for the most part written by literary figures rather than historians. The series spanned three publishers and thirty-seven years.- History :...
) - Nebraska Coast (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1939)
- The Age of Indiscretion (J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1950)
Short stories
- "From Peter to Paul and Back", (Top-Notch - June 15, 1920)
- "The Hay Fever Handicap", (Argosy All-Story Weekly - September 21, 1929)
- "The Lumberjack Telegrapher", (Frontier Stories - January 1929)
- "Payday", (The American Magazine - Nov 1938)
- "Something for Nothing" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - August 1955)
Archives
- Clyde Brion Davis Papers. YCAL MSS 255. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.