The Seaman's Friend, a manual of admiralty law. -769-
Guy Davenport (1927-) Born in Anderson, South Carolina, Davenport was educated at Duke, Oxford, and finally Harvard universities; he received his Ph.D. from the last in 1961. Presently a professor at the University of Kentucky, Davenport continues to write essays, reviews, poems, libretti, and what have been called 'assemblages' — finely crafted short stories that merge history, myth, and sociopolitical themes along with Davenport's poetic and innovative voice. His works include Tatlin! (1974), Eclogues (1981), and Apples and Peas & Other Stories (1984).
Robertson Davies (1913-) Davies was born in Thamesville, Ontario, the son of a local newspaper publisher. He was educated at Upper Canada College, Toronto, in Kingston at Queen's University, and at Balliol College, Oxford, and has been variously an editor, educator, and dramatist as well as novelist. His novels include the Salterton trilogy, Tempest-tost (1951), Leaven of Malice (1954), and A Mixture of Frailties (1958), and the Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975).
Rebecca Harding Davis (1831–1910) Born Rebecca Blaine Harding in Washington, Pennsylvania, she was largely self-educated, and began writing fiction while quite young. In 1861 her stories began to appear in the Atlantic Monthly, and in 1862 her first and most popular novel, Margret Howth, was published. In 1863 she married journalist L. Clarke Davis and moved to Philadelphia; she was herself an associate editor of the New York Tribune for several years. She was an early pioneer of the naturalistic style, exemplified in her famous short novel Life in the Iron Mills (1861). She was the mother of novelist Richard Harding Davis.
Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) Davis's mother was writer Rebecca Harding Davis. He was born in Philadelphia, and achieved fame as a journalist, war correspondent, and editor of Harper's Weekly. His travels as a reporter provided -770- material for many collections of stories; in addition he wrote twentyfive plays and several novels, the best known of which is Soldiers of Fortune (1897), a love story set against the backdrop of a South American revolution.
Martin Robison Delany (1812-85) Born a free African American in Charles Town, West Virginia, Delany was educated first by itinerant booksellers, briefly attended Harvard Medical School, and during the Civil War became the first African American major in the United States Army. In 1843 he established a newspaper, the Mystery; in 1852 he published The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, advocating the creation of a free black state. His novel, Blake; or, The Huts of America, was serialized between 1859 and 1862, but was not published in book form until 1970.
Samuel Delany (1942-) Born in Harlem, New York, and educated in the Bronx, Delany has used metaphors of the city and ethnicity to shape his postmodern science fiction. Delany attended New York City College for two years. Highly influenced by the cultural dynamism of the 1960s, he dropped out of college to pursue a career as a writer. His first novel was finished in the same year (1962). Extraordinarily prolific, Delany numbers among his works The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Captives of the Flame (1963), The Towers of Toron (1964), The Einstein Intersection (1967), Dhalgren (1975), Triton (1976), and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984).
Joan Didion (1934-) Didion has the unusual distinction of being from a family that has resided in California for several generations. Born outside Stockton in 1934, Didion inherited a Western sensibility that marks all of her prose. Didion is a stylist who attempts to construct narratives but is always aware that she works in a literary terrain wherein narration is necessarily a deconstructive act. Her fictional works include Run River (1963), Play It As It Lays (1970), A Book of Common Prayer-771- (1977), and Democracy (1984). Didion's essays have also received critical acclaim. Her nonfiction works include Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1979), and Salvador (1983). Didion now lives in New York City and has merged her postmodern perspective with her concern for global politics. She remains one of the strongest voices in contemporary literature.
Thomas Dixon (1864–1946) Dixon was born in North Carolina, and was a Baptist minister before becoming a novelist. His novel The Clansman (1905) was part of a trilogy that included The Leopard's Spots (1902) and The Traitor (1907), and was adapted for the silent screen by D. W. Griffith as The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Ivan Doig (1939-) Doig grew up in Montana where he later worked as a ranch-hand. His work chronicles in detail the development of the Montana highlands and places him in the arena of serious, contemporary Western writers. Doig's works include This House of Sky (1978), Winter Brothers (1980), The Sea Runners (1982), and a trilogy composed of English Creek (1984), Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987), and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana (1990).
John Dos Passos (1896–1970) Dos Passos's life was politically focused from its beginning. The son of a prominent Wall Street lawyer, Dos Passos attended Choate School, explored Europe, and went on to Harvard University, where he became committed to leftist politics. In 1917 Dos Passos went to France and volunteered as an ambulance driver. Deeply affected by the brutality and violence that he witnessed during World War I, Dos Passos increased his devotion to left-wing politics and socially committed fiction. His works include Three Soldiers (1920), Manhattan Transfer (1925), The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), The Big Money (1936), District of Columbia (1952), and Midcentury (1961). -772-
Frederick Douglass (1817-95) Douglass is best known for his autobiographical account of his enslaved youth and his subsequent escape from slavery. His Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) details Douglass's early life of bondage and his liberating discovery of his authorial voice. Douglass's work shows familiarity with previous texts concerning slavery and emancipation, but his book became the classic slave narrative, archetypal of its genre. The dates regarding Douglass's life are, by his own admission, unreliable, as slaves were not routinely provided with birth records. However, Douglass was born in Maryland, the son of a black slave woman and a free white male. After witnessing the dissolution of his family, the sexual abuse of his aunt, and beatings from his owners, Douglass escaped and made his way to New York in 1838. In 1841 Douglass attended an antislavery convention in Nantucket where he was 'moved to speak,' and he subsequently became involved in the abolitionist movement.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) The son of former slaves, Dunbar was born and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Both his parents had taught themselves to read, and his mother especially shared and nurtured her son's early love of poetry and literature. Dunbar attended public school in Dayton and graduated in 1891. He began to receive public attention in 1892, but not until 1896, when William Dean Howells gave his poetry a substantial and favorable review in Harper's Weekly, did he get the boost needed to establish his reputation. Dunbar produced four novels, The Uncalled (1896), The Love of Landry (1900), The Fanatics (1901), and finally, in 1902, The Sport of the Gods. While the first three books featured white protagonists, The Sport of the
