'A new thing in an old way'

 

"The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way." – Richard Harding Davis

 

Born in Philadelphia on this date in 1864, Davis played an outsized role in American life through both his reporting skills and his works of fiction and drama.  He was the first American war correspondent to cover 3 wars – Spanish-American, Boer and WWI – his reporting often credited for the wild popularity of Theodore Roosevelt’s Roughriders.

 

The son of two prominent writers – Rebecca Harding Davis, a successful creative writer and playwright, and Lemuel Davis, a leading journalist – he served as managing editor of Harper’s Weekly, setting editorial standards that nearly all other magazines strove to emulate. 

 

He had many successful novels including the bestselling Soldiers of Fortune – also adapted into two different movies.  And he authored 25 plays, hundreds of newspaper features, and several nonfiction books, led by his massive bestseller Notes of a War Correspondent.   

                                         

Constantly on the move and maintaining an arduous work schedule, Davis died of a heart attack just days shy of his 52^nd birthday (in 2016) while working on deadline for yet another story.

 

“That the situation appears hopeless,” he once said, “still should not prevent us from doing our best.”