Guy Davenport

Guy Mattison Davenport (1927 - 2005) was an American writer, translator, painter, illustrator, intellectual, and teacher.

Life and Work (one version)

Guy Davenport was born in Anderson, South Carolina in the foothills of Appalachia November 23, 1927. His father was an agent for the Railway Express Agency. Davenport became a serious reader at age ten, with a neighbor?s gift of one of the Tarzan series. He left high school early and enrolled at Duke University at age seventeen. At Duke he studied classics, English literature, and art.

Related Topics:
Anderson - South Carolina - Foothills - Appalachia - Father - Agent - Railway Express Agency - Tarzan - Duke University - Classics - English literature - Art

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He was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford from 1948 to 1950, where one of his classes was Old English taught by J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote Oxford?s first thesis on James Joyce. He returned to the U.S. and served in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg (756th Field Artillery, then 18th Airborne Corps) and in Korea (1950-1952). Upon leaving the army, he taught until 1955 at Washington University in St. Louis, then began his Ph.D. at Harvard University, where he studied with Harry Levin and Archibald MacLeish. He befriended Ezra Pound during the poet?s incarceration in St. Elizabeth's Hospital, visiting him annually from 1952 until his release in 1958, and at his home in Rapallo (Italy) in 1963 (a visit that became Davenport?s story, ?Ithaka?). Davenport wrote his dissertation on Pound?s poetry (published as Cities on Hills in 1983). During his years in Cambridge, he was briefly married.

Related Topics:
Rhodes Scholar - Merton College - Oxford - 1948 - 1950 - Old English - J.R.R. Tolkien - Thesis - James Joyce - U.S. Army - Fort Bragg - 756th Field Artillery - 18th Airborne Corps - Korea - 1952 - 1955 - Washington University in St. Louis - Ph.D. - Harvard University - Harry Levin - Archibald MacLeish - Ezra Pound - St. Elizabeth's Hospital - 1958 - Rapallo - Italy - 1963 - Story - Dissertation - Pound - 1983 - Cambridge

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After completing his Ph.D., he taught at Haverford College from 1961 to 1963 but soon took a position at the University of Kentucky, ?the remotest offer with the most pay? (as he wrote to Jonathan Williams), where he taught until his retirement at the end of 1990.

Related Topics:
Ph.D. - Haverford College - 1961 - 1963 - University of Kentucky - Jonathan Williams - 1990

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Davenport began publishing fiction in 1970 with ?The Aeroplanes at Brescia?, which is based on Kafka?s visit to an air show in September 1909. His books include Tatlin!, Da Vinci?s Bicycle, Eclogues, Apples and Pears, The Jules Verne Steam Balloon, The Drummer of the Eleventh North Devonshire Fusiliers, A Table of Green Fields, The Cardiff Team, Twelve Stories, and The Death of Picasso (which also includes a selection of essays). His fiction uses three general modes of exposition: The fictionalizing of historical events and figures; the foregrounding of formal narrative experiments, especially in the use of collage; and the depicting of a Fourierist utopia, where small groups of men, women, & children have eliminated the separation between mind and body.

Related Topics:
Fiction - 1970 - Aeroplanes - Brescia? - Kafka - September - 1909 - Tatlin - Da Vinci - Bicycle - Eclogues - Jules Verne - Cardiff - Picasso - Narrative - Collage - Fourier - Utopia

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Before publishing fiction, Davenport was a regular reviewer for National Review and The Hudson Review. His essays ranged from literary to social topics, from small book reviews to lectures such as the title essay for his first collection, The Geography of the Imagination. Davenport was especially passionate about the destruction of the American metropolis by the automobile.

Related Topics:
Fiction - Essays - Geography - Imagination

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His other collections of essays were Every Force Evolves a Form and The Hunter Gracchus and Other Papers on Literature & Art. He also published two slim volumes on art: A Balthus Notebook and Objects on a Table.

Related Topics:
Essays - Gracchus - Literature - Art - Balthus

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Davenport wrote a handful of poems; the longest are ?The Resurrection at Cookham Churchyard? (borrowing the title from a painting by Stanley Spencer) and the book-length Flowers & Leaves, an intricate meditation on art and America. His poems were collected in Thasos and Ohio.

Related Topics:
Cookham - Stanley Spencer - Art - America - Thasos - Ohio

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Davenport also translated ancient Greek texts, particularly from the archaic period (published in small volumes, then collected into 7 Greeks), the occasional other piece (a few poems of Rilke?s, some ancient Egyptian texts ) and, with Benjamin Urrutia, the sayings of Jesus, published as The Logia of Yeshua.

Related Topics:
Ancient - Greek - Archaic - Rilke - Egyptian - Benjamin Urrutia - Jesus - Logia - Yeshua

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Before Davenport was a writer, he was a visual artist, and he drew or painted every day of his life. His notebooks are filled with drawings, cheek by jowl with his own observations and quotes from others. Many of his earlier stories are combinations of picture and text, especially "Tatlin!? and "Apples and Pears" (where some of the illustrations are of pages of his notebook). He also supplied illustrations for the books of others, particularly his friend, Hugh Kenner, in The Counterfeiters and The Stoic Comedians.

Related Topics:
Hugh Kenner - Stoic

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Davenport was remarkable for the range of his literary and artistic friendships. In addition to Pound, Williams, and Kenner, Davenport knew Louis Zukofsky, Samuel Beckett, Christopher Middleton, Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, Buckminster Fuller, Eudora Welty, Samuel Delany, Robert Kelly, James Laughlin, Allen Ginsberg, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Stan Brakhage, and Ronald Johnson.

Related Topics:
Pound - Williams - Kenner - Louis Zukofsky - Samuel Beckett - Christopher Middleton - Thomas Merton - Wendell Berry - Buckminster Fuller - Eudora Welty - Samuel Delany - Robert Kelly - James Laughlin - Allen Ginsberg - Ralph Eugene Meatyard - Stan Brakhage - Ronald Johnson

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Two sentences he wrote about Meatyard apply as well to himself: ?He was rare among American artists in that he was not obsessed with his own image in the world. He could therefore live in perfect privacy in a rotting Kentucky town.? Davenport bought Oscar Mayer bologna, fried it, and ate it with Campbell's soup. He died of lung cancer on January 4 2005.

Related Topics:
Meatyard - Artists - Kentucky - Oscar Mayer - Bologna - Campbell's soup - Lung cancer

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