Call Number:

C1319

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Robert H. Davis Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1907-1929 (inclusive)

Creator:

Davis, Robert H. (Robert Hobart), 1869-1942

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century and Poems -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists primarily of correspondence of American writer and editor Robert H. Davis with his friend, lawyer Thomas Baskerville, who was amassing a collection of autographs of famous individuals.

Robert H. Davis was an American novelist and poet. He joined the Frank A Munsey Company in New York City, and was fiction editor of Munsey's Magazine (1903-1904).

Thomas Baskerville was a lawyer. He was a member of the New York law firm of Bowers and Sands, and later he joined the firm of Middlebrook & Sincerbeaux.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence of Robert H. Davis with his friend, the lawyer Thomas Baskerville, who was amassing a collection of autographs of famous individuals. Several of Davis's letters to Baskerville include poems by Davis or discuss and criticize literary works. Included are a short poem titled "Lines to Autumn by a Nature Faker" and another poem that is untitled but starts with "Them nifty little Brownsville crackers . . . ." There is another autograph poem by Davis (with typewritten copy) titled "You've an Elephant off Your Hands" and addressed "To Tom." Of significance is the group of letters from famous American and British authors, poets, and other celebrities that were sent to Davis during the course of his job as editor for Munsey's and which he passed on to Baskerville for his autograph collection. The correspondents include Robert Bartlett; Arnold Bennett; Don Bryne; Emmett Dalton, train robber and member of the Dalton Gang in the American Old West and author of The Death of Several Roughnecks; American humorist and playwright Montague Glass; Francis Grierson; Fannie Hurst; Wallace Irwin; William Loeb, secretary to President Woodrow Wilson; Francis Patton; Elihu Root; Edwin Milton Royle; Arthur Train; and author Ben Ames Williams.