Davenport, Guy Mattison, Jr.

▪ 2006

      American writer (b. Nov. 23, 1927, Anderson, S.C.—d. Jan. 4, 2005, Lexington, Ky.), was a prolific and erudite author of short stories, essays, poetry, and translations. He spent his career in academia, teaching at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and at Haverford (Pa.) College before joining the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1963, where he became a well-known professor of literature and began publishing. His writing was noted for its intellectual density and complexity. Among the more than 40 books that he wrote or contributed to were Tatlin! Six Stories (1974), Da Vinci's Bicycle: Ten Stories (1979), and The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays (1981). In 1990 Davenport was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship (a “genius grant”), and he retired from the University of Kentucky the following year.

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