Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I.[1] His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. He also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion, and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.[2]
Biography
Davis was born on April 18, 1864, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1][2] His mother Rebecca Harding Davis was a prominent writer. His father, Lemuel Clarke Davis, was himself a journalist and edited the Philadelphia Public Ledger.[2] As a young man, Davis attended the Episcopal Academy. In 1882, after an unhappy year at Swarthmore College, Davis transferred to Lehigh University, where his uncle, H. Wilson Harding, was a professor.[3] While at Lehigh, Davis published his first book, The Adventures of My Freshman (1884), a collection of short stories. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the student magazine the Lehigh Burr.[4] In 1885, Davis transferred to Johns Hopkins University.[5]
After college, his father helped him gain his first position as a journalist at the Philadelphia Record, but he was soon dismissed. After another brief position at the Philadelphia Press, Davis accepted a better-paying position at the New York Evening Sun where he gained attention for his flamboyant style and his writing on controversial subjects such as abortion, suicide and execution.[2] He first attracted attention in May to June 1889, by reporting on the devastation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, following the destructive flood. He added to his reputation by reporting on other noteworthy events such as the first electrocution of a criminal (the execution of William Kemmler in 1890).
He was popular among a number of leading writers of his time, and is considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing "Gibson man", the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is mentioned early in Sinclair Lewis' book Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero.
Davis had success with his 1897 novel Soldiers of Fortune, which he turned into a play[6] written by Augustus Thomas. His novel was filmed twice, in 1914 and in 1919 by Allan Dwan. The 1914 version starring Dustin Farnum was shot in the Cuban locations that Davis used in his novel, and Davis was present during the filming.[7]
Davis was a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and he helped create the legend surrounding the Rough Riders, of which he was made an honorary member. Some [who?] have even gone so far to accuse Davis of involvement in William Randolph Hearst's alleged plot to have started the war between Spain and the United States in order to boost newspaper sales; however, Davis refused to work for Hearst after a dispute over fictionalizing one of his articles.
Bessie and Hope Davis
Despite his alleged association with yellow journalism, his writings of life and travel in Central America, Venezuela, the Caribbean, Rhodesia and South Africa during the Second Boer War were widely published. He was one of many war correspondents who covered the Russo-Japanese War from the perspective of the Japanese forces.[8]
Davis later reported on the Salonika front of the First World War, where he was arrested by the Germans as a spy, but released.
Personal life
Davis was married twice, first to Cecil Clark, an artist, in 1899, and, following their 1912 divorce, to Bessie McCoy, an actress and vaudeville performer, who is remembered for her signature "Yama Yama Man" routine. Davis and Bessie had a daughter, Hope.[2]
Davis died of a heart attack on April 11, 1916, while on the telephone. It was seven days before his 52nd birthday.[1] He was interred at Leverington Cemetery in Philadelphia.[9] His friend and fellow author John Fox, Jr. was surprised by his sudden death, writing, "He was so intensely alive that I cannot think of him as dead—and I do not. He is just away on another of those trips and it really seems queer that I shall not hear him tell about it."[10] His wife Bessie would also die young, at age 42 in 1931 from intestinal problems.
Legacy
A plaque denoting his boyhood home can be seen at 21st and Chancellor Streets in Philadelphia.
Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 32.
Lubow, Arthur. The Reporter Who Would Be King: A Biography of Richard Harding Davis (Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992). ISBN0-684-19404-X;
