Clyde Brion Davis

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Clyde Brion Davis (May 22, 1894 - July 19, 1962) was an American author and freelance journalist active from the mid 1920's until his death. Davis is best known for his novels The Anointed and The Great American Novel, though he authored over fifteen books.

[edit] History

Clyde Brion Davis was born on May 22, 1894 in Unadilla, Nebraska. In 1926 he married Martha Wirt. Their only child, David Brion Davis was born on February 16, 1927 in Denver, Colorado.

Employed as a steamfitter's helper, chimney sweep, furnace repair man, electrician, detective, and journalist, Davis' fiction efforts were first published by a number of pulp magazines during the 1920]'s. Davis resided in Hamburg, New York in the late 1930's when he burst on the literary scene with his two most popular novels, The Anointed (1937) and The Great American Novel (1938). The Anointed was adapted in 1945 to the MGM movie Adventurer staring Clark Gable and Greer Garson. Adventurer premiered at Radio City Music Hall in 1946 and was Gable's return to the screen after his military service. While Adventurer broke box office records in its first week in release, the movie was not critically well received.

In 1946 the Davis family moved to Salisbury, Connecticut where Davis resided for the rest of his life. Davis died in Salisbury, Connecticut on July 19, 1962. His last novel, Shadow of a Day, was published posthumously.

[edit] Partial bibliography

Ficton

• The Anointed (Farrar & Rinehart, 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 Co., New York, 1946)
• Jeremy Bell (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1947)
• Temper the Wind (The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 1948) (A Gold Seal Novel)
• Playtime is Over (Arthur Barker, 1950)
• Thudbury: An American Comedy (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1952)
• Unholy Uproar, a novel (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1957)
• The Big Pink Kite (John Day Co., New York, 1960)
• Shadow of A Day (John Day Co., New York, 1963)

Non-Fiction

• The Arkansas (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1940) (Rivers of America Series)
• Nebraska Coast (Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1939)
• The Age of Indiscretion (J. B. Lippincott Co., 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)

[edit] References

• Review of The Anointed, Time Magazine, August 2, 1937
• Review of the Great American Novel, Time Magazine, June 6, 1938
• iMBD Movie Database
• Turner Classic Movies
• David Brion Davis Papers, Yale University
• Fiction Mags Index