George Davis (editor)

George Garfield Davis
Born	(1906-02-04)February 4, 1906 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 25, 1957(1957-11-25) (aged 51) Berlin, Germany
Resting place	Ludington, Michigan
Occupation	Novelist and Editor
Nationality	American
Notable works	The Opening of a Door (1931)
Spouse	Lotte Lenya ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 1957)​

George Davis (February 4, 1906 – November 25, 1957) was an American fiction editor and a novelist.

Early life

Davis was born on February 4, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois to Canadian immigrants. He was the youngest of five boys and had an elder sister that died of diphtheria before he was born. Davis's father worked as a pharmacist in a cousin's pharmacy on Clark Street near the north side. Working in the pharmacy at night, Davis's father went to medical school by day and graduated from the University of Illinois' College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago on June 4, 1909, when Davis was 3 years old. In 1910, the family moved to Clinton, Michigan.

Before the United States entered World War I in 1917, Davis' oldest brother, Harold, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France, where he served as a motorcycle courier, traveling between the command in the rear and the front lines, often through enemy territory. After the United States entered the war, the family moved to Highland Park in 1918, a city in the center of Detroit. Shortly afterwards, The Great Influenza epidemic began, which impacted Davis's family, as his father treated the sick.

Davis enrolled at Tilden Elementary School in 1918. With permission from his father, Davis was allowed access to adult literature, leading him to frequent libraries and read approximately one book per day. After graduating from Tilden in 1919, Davis proceeded to attend Central High School.

At that time, Davis's brother returned from the War. He had married Marguerite d'Hyevre, a woman whose husband had been killed at Verdun. Her young son also came over from Paris within a year. Marguerite would teach Davis French, and by the time he graduated from high school in 1923, he could speak French without an accent. He then entered City College (now Wayne State University) but soon left for Chicago, where he worked in the office of a steel company before taking a job in Marshall Field's book department. In December 1926, Davis returned to Highland Park to seek permission and funds from his father to go to Paris and join the growing post-war community of American expatriate writers and artists. In 1927, he traveled to France to write his novel, The Opening of a Door, which was published by Harper in 1931.

Literary career

The Opening of a Door

His only novel, The Opening of a Door, was published in 1931. He intended for it to unmask the hypocrisy and tragedy of midwestern middle-class life. Clifton Fadiman, wrote that "the smoothness of the prose, the unity of the tone. . . are all the marks of a practiced craftsman. It is one of the most unfirstish first novels I have ever read. It is difficult to believe it is the work of one so young." Davis was twenty-four when the novel was published by Harper Brothers, and it became one of the most critically acclaimed novels of 1931.

Editorship

Davis served as fiction editor of the periodical Harper's Bazaar from 1936 to 1941. After being fired from Harper's, he served as an editor for Mademoiselle for eight years. A flamboyant genius and homosexual, Davis is noted for bringing literature to woman's magazines. He was an early sponsor of such diverse literary figures as Truman Capote, Ray Bradbury, Jane Bowles, and Robert Lowry.

February House

Davis and several friends, including Gypsy Rose Lee, founded an art commune at 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights in October 1940. Dubbed February House by Anaïs Nin because so many of its residents had February birthdays, the house became a hub of cultural activities in New York. Figures like Benjamin Britten, W. H. Auden and Carson McCullers were live-in guests. A study of 7 Middagh Street, entitled February House, was published in 2005.

Death

Davis died of a heart attack in Berlin on November 25, 1957, where he had been helping his wife, singer Lotte Lenya, make recordings.

Davis in literature

A literary satire of George Davis was written by Truman Capote in the form of the character "Boaty" in his unfinished work Answered Prayers.

References

• Clarke, Gerald. Capote: A Biography. Carroll & Graf, 2005.
• Tippins, Sherill. February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.