Literary Birthday – 24 June – Rebecca Harding Davis

Rebecca Harding Davis was born on 24 June 1831 and died on 29 September 1910.

Rebecca Harding Davis Quotes

1. You will find the poet who wrings the heart of the world, or the foremost captain of his time, driving a bargain or paring a potato, just as you would do.
2. While the light burning within may have been divine, the outer case of the lamp was assuredly cheap enough. Whitman was, from first to last, a boorish, awkward poseur.
3. No man surely has so short a memory as the American.
4. Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of beneficent deity, which not only adds to the national honour but uplifts a nation and develops patriotism and courage. That is all true. But it is only fair, too, to let them know that the garments of the deity are filthy and that some of her influences debase and befoul a people.
5. It is a good rule never to see or talk to the man whose words have wrung your heart, or helped it, just as it is wise not to look down too closely at the luminous glow which sometimes shines on your path on a summer night, if you would not see the ugly worm below.
6. It has happened to me to meet many of the men of my day whom the world agreed to call great.

Rebecca Harding Davis was an American author, essayist, and journalist. She is seen as a pioneer of literary realism in American literature. She is the author of Life in the Iron Mills. At the time it was published, Harding was acknowledged as a ‘brave new voice’ by Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. A prolific writer, Rebecca Harding Davis is credited with over 500 published works. In 1892, she was successful with the publication of Silhouettes of American Life. Her son was the writer, Richard Harding Davis.

Source for image: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rebecca_Harding_Davis.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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