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 on this date in 1864, Davis
played an outsized role in American life with both his reporting skills and works
of fiction and drama. He was the first
American war correspondent to cover 3 wars – Spanish-American, Boer and WWI –
and was such an avid supporter of Theodore Roosevelt that he became
instrumental in Roosevelt’s success. His reporting, in fact, led to the wild popularity
of Roosevelt’s Roughriders.
He
was the son of two prominent writers – Rebecca Harding Davis, a successful
creative writer and playwright, and Lemuel Davis, a leading journalist – and
gravitated to both fields, ultimately becoming managing editor of Harper’s Weekly. His editorship played a major role in the
evolution of the American magazine. His
influence extended beyond news magazines to fashion journals and the way he
dressed and looked (he was clean-shaven) and made him the model to be emulated
among most young men at the turn of the 20th century.
And,
he was a terrific writer, both journalistically and creatively. He had many successful novels. His book Soldiers of Fortune was a
massive best-seller and also was turned into a play and two separate
movies. He also authored 25 plays and
hundreds and hundreds of newspaper features. Then, in 1916, still at the height of his popularity, he died from a heart
attack while working late into the night on a story about the war.
"He was as good an American as ever lived, and
his heart flamed against cruelty and injustice,” President Roosevelt wrote at
the time of his death. “His writings
form a textbook of Americanism which all our people would do well to read at
the present time."
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