Publisher's Synopsis
Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 - April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War.His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt and he also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century. Davis was born on April 18, 1864 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.His mother Rebecca Harding Davis was a prominent writer in her day. His father, Lemuel Clarke Davis, was himself a journalist and edited the Philadelphia Public Ledger. As a young man, Davis attended the Episcopal Academy. In 1882, after an unhappy year at Swarthmore College, Davis transferred to Lehigh University, where his uncle, H. Wilson Harding, was a professor.While at Lehigh, Davis published his first book, The Adventures of My Freshman (1884), a collection of short stories. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the student magazine the Lehigh Burr. In 1885, Davis transferred to Johns Hopkins University. After college, his father helped him gain his first position as a journalist at the Philadelphia Record but he was soon dismissed. After another brief position at the Philadelphia Press, Davis accepted a better-paying position at the New York Evening Sun where he gained attention for his flamboyant style and his writing on controversial subjects such as abortion, suicide and execution.He first attracted attention in May to June 1889, by reporting on the devastation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, following the infamous flood and added to his reputation by reporting on other noteworthy events such as the first electrocution of a criminal (the execution of William Kemmler in 1890)......... Walter Appleton Clark was born June 24, 1876 and died December 26, 1906. He began his brief career with studies at the Art Students League in New York in 1894. He studied under H. Siddons Mowbray, who was classically trained in Paris and instilled in Clark the basics of good draftsmanship.Clark's classmates included James Montgomery Flagg who was already selling to Life and Judge and was already known as a bon vivant, man about town. Flagg painted the portrait of Clark, above right, and undertook the daunting task of showing the 18-year-old Clark the wonders and pleasures of New York. At the ripe old age of 23, he returned to the Art Students League as an instructor. Despite a great success there as a teacher, he only stayed for 1899 and went back to full-time illustrating the following year. His work was now extremely popular. In 1902-1903 he was providing illustrations for two series running simultaneously in Scribner's, The "Fortunes of Oliver Horn" and "Captain Macklin" by two of the most popular writers of the day. His drawings were often chosen for the coveted frontispiece position in the magazine. It was the first image the reader saw upon opening the magazine and was reserved for premier artists. To give you an idea of how well Clark was regarded, he was appearing in the same issues of the same magazines as Howard Pyle, Howard Chandler Christy, A.B. Frost, and Jules Guerin. And this was just five years after he began his career. It's difficult to convey how respected Clark was in his day, but, had he lived, it's easy to see him in the same class as Parrish and Wyeth. The image above right is from "The Fortunes of Oliver Horn", by F. Hopkinson Smith and appeared in the May 1902 issue of Scribner's. The chapters were collected into book form in August 1902 with eight b&w plates.........
