William Stearns Davis
Encyclopedia
William Stearns Davis American educator, historian, and author, has been cited as one who “contributed to history as a scholarly discipline, . . . [but] was intrigued by the human side of history, which, at the time, was neglected by the discipline.” After first experimenting with short stories, he turned while still a college undergraduate to longer forms to relate, from an involved (fictional) character’s view, a number of critical turns of history. This faculty for humanizing, even dramatizing, history characterized Davis’ later academic and professional writings as well, making them particularly suitable for secondary and higher education during the first half of the twentieth century in a field which, according to one editor, had “lost the freshness and robustness . . . the congeniality” that should mark the study of history. Both Davis’ fiction and non-fiction are found in public and academic libraries today.
, Amherst, Massachusetts
, where his mother's father had been president for the twenty-two years preceding his birth. His father was Congregational
minister William Vail Wilson Davis; his mother Francis Stearns. Due both to childhood illnesses and to family moves occasioned by his father's call to new congregations, Davis was largely educated at home until he entered Worcester Academy
in 1895. In 1897 he matriculated at Harvard
. Fascinated by maps and by historical figures, he had begun writing stories for himself while still at home. He now turned this experience and his desire to humanize history to writing historical novels, the first of which, A Friend of Caesar, was published in the year he graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa
. He continued at Harvard, being the first first-year graduate student to receive the Harvard Thayer Graduate Scholarship, and earning his A.M. in 1901 and his Ph.D in 1905. During these same years he continued publishing historical fiction.
In 1904, Davis began his formal teaching career, beginning as a lecturer at Radcliffe College
while finishing his doctorate. He continued thereafter at Beloit College
(instructor, 1906–07), Oberlin College
(Assistant Professor of Medieval and Modern European History, 1907–1909), and finally at the University of Minnesota
(Professor of History, 1909–1927). “He was an excellent teacher with the ability to put life into his lectures.” His steady output of non-fiction in both history and the historical background to contemporary world affairs began with his time at Minnesota
. Professionally, he was a member of the American Historical Association
.
In 1911, he married Alice Williams Redfield of Minneapolis. He retired from teaching in 1927, moving back to New England
and taking up residence in Exeter, New Hampshire
, with the intention of devoting all of his time to writing. However, he died of pneumonia
following an operation at the age of 52 on February 15, 1930.
and Salamis
, the coming to power of Julius Caesar
, Leo the Isaurian’s defense of Constantinople, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation
, and the start of the American Revolution
. Stylistically, they use narrative of the kind which Josephine Tey called “history-with-conversation”, and his earliest novels have some of the attributes of scholarly publication, including meticulous (and copious) footnotes or appendices. Indeed, a reviewer of a later fictional work noted that previously “Mr. Davis has erred in overabundance of detail. Knowing much is sometimes more troublesome than knowing little, and Mr. Davis's knowledge has in times past seemed too large for his story. In Falaise, however, this fault is to a most felicitous degree overcome . . . .” The American National Biography noted that his fictional works “were not classics, . . . but they were accurate and maintained an interesting story line.” He himself would become deeply involved in such writings, to the point of depression when one was finished.
). The opening of The Roots of the War, perhaps his most contemporaneously widely read nonfiction book, portrays Bismarck
, Moltke, and Roon at dinner in 1870, planning what would become the Franco-Prussian War
. Among his last works, Europe Since Waterloo (and all the revisions based upon it) begins with a narrative picture of Napoleon on the deck of the British man-o'-war transporting him to his final exile in St. Helena. Forty years later, Kurt Schmeller, producing the latest revision of that work, would say that he “sought to retain the powerful and dramatic narrative of earlier editions”, and Theodore H. Von Laue’s foreword to the same edition would cite Davis’ “forceful, lively, and down-to-earth style” as a motive to retain the core of a work then moving towards a half-century of use.
Davis’ strong anti-German sentiment colored much of his later non-fiction writing, particularly in his articles and letters to various periodicals. He was a forceful advocate of military preparedness in the years leading up to World War I, for which he was duly criticized in the widely pacifistic feeling of the times (see for example the 1916 exchange of letters in The Survey). During World War I
, Davis and many other academic historians desired to support the war but hesitated between a professionally ethical approach to history and a firm belief in President Wilson’s
expressed ideals in advocating American intervention in the War. Davis chose to participate in the work of the government-sponsored Committee on Public Information
(CPI). Davis in particular provided historical background and context to the Committee's pamphlet on Wilson’s war message to Congress. For this work, in the years following the War, he and the other participants were criticized by some contemporaries belonging to the "revisionist" historical school
, such as Harry Elmer Barnes
. Succeeding next-generation scholars in the same tradition were equally critical. A particularly outspoken critic, C. Hartley Gratton, said of Davis' CPI efforts and of his 1918 The Roots of the War that there was "free use of gossip, and the 'revelations' of the Creel Bureau are accepted as definitive truth". Davis himself would write in 1926 of the earlier work that “very little of [that] hastily prepared material has endured under the cold scrutiny demanded by added information and years of retrospect.”. In view of Davis' retirement and early death, what long-term effect such criticisms might have had upon him is unknowable. Blakey sums up the revisionists' efforts by saying that, however they changed the practice of historical writing, "their impact on the subsequent lives and careers of the embattled historians was slight to the point of being negligible," and this could apply fairly to Davis.
Stylistically, Davis never gave up on writing stories as a medium to convey his love for history as he saw it, and his intense conviction that the knowledge of history should matter to his contemporaries. He had a faculty for describing critical scenes, such as the expulsion of the tribunes in A Friend of Caesar or Luther before the Diet of Worms
in The Friar of Wittenberg. In his day, he was known for his “vivid, almost melodramatic prose style”. Twentieth Century Authors would credit him with having welded “fact and fiction without loss of narrative intensity or historical plausibility.”
Life
Davis was born April 30, 1877 in the presidential mansion of Amherst CollegeAmherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, where his mother's father had been president for the twenty-two years preceding his birth. His father was Congregational
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
minister William Vail Wilson Davis; his mother Francis Stearns. Due both to childhood illnesses and to family moves occasioned by his father's call to new congregations, Davis was largely educated at home until he entered Worcester Academy
Worcester Academy
Worcester Academy is an independent coeducational preparatory school spread over in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The school is divided into a middle school, serving approximately 150 students in grades six to eight, and an upper school, serving approximately 500 students in...
in 1895. In 1897 he matriculated at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Fascinated by maps and by historical figures, he had begun writing stories for himself while still at home. He now turned this experience and his desire to humanize history to writing historical novels, the first of which, A Friend of Caesar, was published in the year he graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
. He continued at Harvard, being the first first-year graduate student to receive the Harvard Thayer Graduate Scholarship, and earning his A.M. in 1901 and his Ph.D in 1905. During these same years he continued publishing historical fiction.
In 1904, Davis began his formal teaching career, beginning as a lecturer at Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
while finishing his doctorate. He continued thereafter at Beloit College
Beloit College
Beloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and has the oldest building of any college...
(instructor, 1906–07), Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
(Assistant Professor of Medieval and Modern European History, 1907–1909), and finally at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
(Professor of History, 1909–1927). “He was an excellent teacher with the ability to put life into his lectures.” His steady output of non-fiction in both history and the historical background to contemporary world affairs began with his time at Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. Professionally, he was a member of the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
.
In 1911, he married Alice Williams Redfield of Minneapolis. He retired from teaching in 1927, moving back to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and taking up residence in Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...
, with the intention of devoting all of his time to writing. However, he died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
following an operation at the age of 52 on February 15, 1930.
Fiction
Davis’ books are characterized by his desire to tell a story. For his historical fiction, he chose subjects with dramatic flavor, such as the battles of ThermopylaeBattle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...
and Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
, the coming to power of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Leo the Isaurian’s defense of Constantinople, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, and the start of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. Stylistically, they use narrative of the kind which Josephine Tey called “history-with-conversation”, and his earliest novels have some of the attributes of scholarly publication, including meticulous (and copious) footnotes or appendices. Indeed, a reviewer of a later fictional work noted that previously “Mr. Davis has erred in overabundance of detail. Knowing much is sometimes more troublesome than knowing little, and Mr. Davis's knowledge has in times past seemed too large for his story. In Falaise, however, this fault is to a most felicitous degree overcome . . . .” The American National Biography noted that his fictional works “were not classics, . . . but they were accurate and maintained an interesting story line.” He himself would become deeply involved in such writings, to the point of depression when one was finished.
Non-fiction
In a similar manner, the elements of narrative and drama are part of his non-fiction, much of which was written for teaching purposes. His 1910 work on wealth and money in first-century Rome begins with an almost journalistic daily-weekly narrative of bank failures and trading house suspensions leading to a financial panic in 33 AD (which must have read all too familiarly to those who had just weathered the 1907 crashPanic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
). The opening of The Roots of the War, perhaps his most contemporaneously widely read nonfiction book, portrays Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
, Moltke, and Roon at dinner in 1870, planning what would become the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. Among his last works, Europe Since Waterloo (and all the revisions based upon it) begins with a narrative picture of Napoleon on the deck of the British man-o'-war transporting him to his final exile in St. Helena. Forty years later, Kurt Schmeller, producing the latest revision of that work, would say that he “sought to retain the powerful and dramatic narrative of earlier editions”, and Theodore H. Von Laue’s foreword to the same edition would cite Davis’ “forceful, lively, and down-to-earth style” as a motive to retain the core of a work then moving towards a half-century of use.
Davis’ strong anti-German sentiment colored much of his later non-fiction writing, particularly in his articles and letters to various periodicals. He was a forceful advocate of military preparedness in the years leading up to World War I, for which he was duly criticized in the widely pacifistic feeling of the times (see for example the 1916 exchange of letters in The Survey). During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Davis and many other academic historians desired to support the war but hesitated between a professionally ethical approach to history and a firm belief in President Wilson’s
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
expressed ideals in advocating American intervention in the War. Davis chose to participate in the work of the government-sponsored Committee on Public Information
Committee on Public Information
The Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I...
(CPI). Davis in particular provided historical background and context to the Committee's pamphlet on Wilson’s war message to Congress. For this work, in the years following the War, he and the other participants were criticized by some contemporaries belonging to the "revisionist" historical school
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
, such as Harry Elmer Barnes
Harry Elmer Barnes
Harry Elmer Barnes was a prominent American historian in the 20th century. A "progressive who had some classical liberal impulses," he was associated for virtually his entire career with Columbia University.-Early career:...
. Succeeding next-generation scholars in the same tradition were equally critical. A particularly outspoken critic, C. Hartley Gratton, said of Davis' CPI efforts and of his 1918 The Roots of the War that there was "free use of gossip, and the 'revelations' of the Creel Bureau are accepted as definitive truth". Davis himself would write in 1926 of the earlier work that “very little of [that] hastily prepared material has endured under the cold scrutiny demanded by added information and years of retrospect.”. In view of Davis' retirement and early death, what long-term effect such criticisms might have had upon him is unknowable. Blakey sums up the revisionists' efforts by saying that, however they changed the practice of historical writing, "their impact on the subsequent lives and careers of the embattled historians was slight to the point of being negligible," and this could apply fairly to Davis.
Historical approach
Throughout his writing career, both of fiction and non-fiction, Davis’ "angle" to history, as he himself put it in his preface to Europe Since Waterloo, included:
“a belief in a just form of nationalism, and that a devoted loyalty to native land is entirely reconcilable with an ardent love for wide humanity.
“an intense belief in democracy, . . . and that the modern age is bound to resume the old, old battle against the vicious assumption that some select group of men . . . is competent to decree the destinies of an entire people.
“Finally, . . . a matured belief that only as the spirit of Christianity penetrates the hearts of men will human brotherhood and wide-spread, enduring happiness be achieved . . . . If the so-called Christian nations and rulers have all too often failed unworthily, their failure has been because they knew not the essence of Christianity, however eagerly they have usurped the name.”
Stylistically, Davis never gave up on writing stories as a medium to convey his love for history as he saw it, and his intense conviction that the knowledge of history should matter to his contemporaries. He had a faculty for describing critical scenes, such as the expulsion of the tribunes in A Friend of Caesar or Luther before the Diet of Worms
Diet of Worms
The Diet of Worms 1521 was a diet that took place in Worms, Germany, and is most memorable for the Edict of Worms , which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding.Other Imperial diets at...
in The Friar of Wittenberg. In his day, he was known for his “vivid, almost melodramatic prose style”. Twentieth Century Authors would credit him with having welded “fact and fiction without loss of narrative intensity or historical plausibility.”
Non-fiction
- Outline History of the Roman Empire (44 B.C. to 378 A.D.) (1909)
- The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome (1910)
- Readings in Ancient History. Two volumes. Vol. I: Greece and the East (1912). Vol. II: Rome and the West (1913)
- A Day in Old Athens: A Picture of Athenian Life (1914). This work was recently adapted by Charles Douglas Smith and republished as Now That You Asked: Ancient Athens (2007)
- A History of Mediaeval and Modern Europe for Secondary Schools (with Norman Shaw McKendrick) (1914)
- The Roots of the War: A Non-technical History of Europe, 1870-1914, A.D. (with William Anderson and Mason W. Tyler) (1918), published in the United Kingdom as Armed Peace (1919)
- A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Versailles (1919)
- A Short History of the Near EastNear EastThe Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
, from the Founding of Constantinople (330, A.D. to 1922) (1922) - Life on a Mediaeval Barony: A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century (1923)
- A Day in Old RomeAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
: A Picture of Roman Life (1925) - Europe Since Waterloo (1926). This work was revised and extended four times by Walter Phelps Hall under the title The Course of Europe Since Waterloo (1941, 1947, 1951, 1957). A still later revision by Kurt R. Schmeller was published as Hall & Davis’ The Course of Europe Since Waterloo (1968).
- The French Revolution as Told in Fiction (1927)
- Life in Elizabethan Days: A Picture of a Typical English Community at the End of the Sixteenth Century (posthumous, 1930)
Fiction
- A Friend of Caesar: A Tale of the Fall of the Roman RepublicRoman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
(1900). - "God Wills It!": A Tale of the First CrusadeFirst CrusadeThe First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
(1901) - BelshazzarBelshazzarBelshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon according to the Book of Daniel . Like his father, it is believed by many scholars that he was an Assyrian. In Daniel Belshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of...
: A Tale of the Fall of Babylon (1902) - The Saint of the Dragon's Dale: A Fantastic Tale (1903)
- Falaise of the Blessed Voice (1904), republished as The White Queen (1925)
- A Victor of Salamis: A Tale of the Days of XerxesXerxes I of PersiaXerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
, Leonidas, and ThemistoclesThemistoclesThemistocles ; c. 524–459 BC, was an Athenian politician and a general. He was one of a new breed of politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy, along with his great rival Aristides...
(1907) - The Friar of WittenbergWittenbergWittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....
(1912) - The Beauty of the Purple: A Romance of Imperial ConstantinopleConstantinopleConstantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
Twelve Centuries Ago (1924) - Gilman of Redford: A Story of BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
& Harvard CollegeHarvard CollegeHarvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
on the Eve of the Revolutionary WarAmerican RevolutionThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, 1770-1775 (1927) - The Whirlwind: An Historical Romance . . . of the French RevolutionFrench RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
(1929)
Sources
- Adams, Oscar Faye. A Dictionary of American Authors. 5th ed., rev. & enlarged. Boston: Houghton Mifflen, 1904. Rpt. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1969.
- The American Historical Review (abbreviated as AHR). "Historical News: Personal". Pub. American Historical Association. Vol. 35, No. 3 (Apr., 1930). Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1838466. Accessed: 9 September 2008 10:36.
- Barnes, Harry Elmer. In Quest of Truth and Justice: De-Bunking the War Guilt Myth. Chicago: National Historical Society, 1928.
- Blakey, George T. Historians on the Homefront: American Propagandists for the Great War. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1970. ISBN 0-8131-1236-2.
- Committee on Public Information (abbreviated as CPI). The War Message and the Facts Behind It: Annotated Text of President Wilson's Message, April 2, 1917. War Information Series No. 1 [No. 101 in some listings]. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917. Google Book Search: "The War Message and the Facts Behind It", accessed 20 October 2008.
- Davis, William Stearns. Europe Since Waterloo: A Non-technical History of Europe from the Exile of Napolean to the Treaty of Versailles, 1815-1919. New York: The Century Company, 1926.
- Davis, William Stearns, with William Anderson and Mason W. Tyler. The Roots of the War, A Non-technical History of Europe 1870-1914 A.D. New York: The Century Company, 1918. Google Book Search: “Roots of the War”, accessed 25 September 2008.
- Gratton, C. Hartley. “The Historians Cut Loose.” American Mercury 11.44(August, 1927):414-430. Reprinted New York: Johnson Reprint Co., 1968.
- Krosch, Penelope. "Davis, William Stearns." American National BiographyAmerican National BiographyThe American National Biography is a 24 volume biographical encyclopedia set containing approximately 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. A 400-entry supplement appeared in 2002...
. Vol. 6. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-512785-4.
- Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft. "Davis, William Stearns." Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1942.
- Lawrence, Alberta, ed. Who's Who Among North American Authors. Vol IV (1929–30), Vol. V (1931–32). Los Angeles: Golden Syndicate Publishing Co.
- MacDonald, Quentin. “Fiction that Many Will Read: Falaise of the Blessed Voice”. Book News, an Illustrated Magazine of Literature and Books. Philadelphia: John Wanamaker, publisher. Vol. 23, No. 267 (Nov 1904). Google Book Search: “Falaise of the Blessed Voice”, accessed 22 October 2008.
- The Nation.The NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
"Current Fiction". Vol 95:2463 (12 September 1912).
- Schmeller, Kurt R. Hall & Davis’ The Course of Europe Since Waterloo. Foreword by Th. H. Von Laue. One volume (hardback); two volumes (paperback). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968.
- Survey Associates. The Survey. Vol. 35 (October 1915-March 1916). Google Book Search, “William Stearns Davis”, accessed 22 October 2008.
- Tey, JosephineJosephine TeyJosephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which name she wrote plays with an historical theme....
(Elizabeth MacKintosh). The Daughter of TimeThe Daughter of TimeThe Daughter of Time is a 1951 novel by Josephine Tey concerning King Richard III of England. It was the last book Tey published, shortly before her death.-Plot summary:...
, 1951. Rpt. in Four, Five, and Six by Tey. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1952.
- Who's Who in AmericaMarquis Who's WhoMarquis Who's Who, a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc., is the American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies...
. Ed. Albert Nelson Marquis. vols. iii (1903), xv (1928–29), xvi (1930–31).
- The Davis Papers are in the Archives of the University of Minnesota Library, Collection Number UARC 702.