åPAR@ ` TEXT ` Davis, Rebecca Blaine Harding1831╨1910essayist and writerBorn on June 24, 1831, in Washington, Pennsylvania, Rebecca Harding grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). In 1848 she graduated from the Washington (Pennsylvania) Female Seminary. She was an avid reader and in her youth began dabbling in the writing of verse and stories. Some of her early pieces were published, but her reputation as an author of startlingly realistic, sometimes grim portraits of life began only with the publication of her story ╥Life in the Iron Mills╙ in the Atlantic Monthly in April 1861. In 1861╨1862 the Atlantic serialized a story that appeared in book form in the latter year as Margaret Howth. In March 1863 she married L. Clarke Davis of Philadelphia, later an editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and later still of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Over the next three decades Davis╒ fiction, children╒s stories, essays, and articles appeared regularly in most of the leading magazines of the day, and from 1869 she was for several years also a contributing editor of the New York Tribune. Her books included Waiting for the Verdict, 1868, Dallas Galbraith, 1868, Pro Aris et Focis╤A Plea for Our Altars and Hearths, 1870, Berrytown, 1872, John Andross, 1874, A Law unto Herself, 1878, Natasqua, 1886, Silhouettes of American Life, 1892, Kent Hampden, 1892, Doctor Warrick╒s Daughters, 1896, Frances Waldeaux, 1896, and the autobiographical Bits of Gossip, 1904. Her later fiction failed to live up to the promise of her early work and grew instead increasingly conventional. Davis died in Mount Kisco, New York, on September 29, 1910. Of her children, the eldest, Richard Harding Davis (1864╨1916) became the foremost American reporter of his day. Vstyl ` * ! ¬ 5¬ ( 5¬ = !I J !I Z !I | !I ä !I ╔ !I ╫ !I , !I A !I Y !I s !I w 5¬ x !I W !I g !I } !I ö !I £ !I ¼ !I ┤ !I τ !I ∩ !I ° !I !I !I !I & !I . !I 6 !I > !I Z !I b !I n !I v !I É !I ÿ !I ¿ !I ╔ !I ╫ !I link `
