Kenneth S. Davis

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Kenneth Sydney Davis (19121999) was a historian and university professor, most renowned for his series of biographies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Davis also wrote biographies of Charles Lindberg, Adlai Stevenson, and authored the first biography of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, entitled Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier of Democracy.

Davis was born in Salina, Kansas, and raised in Manhattan, Kansas. He was a 1934 graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in journalism, and received a master of science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1935. During his varied career, Davis was a journalism instructor at New York University, a war correspondent attached to General Eisenhower's headquarters during World War II, and a professor of history at both Kansas State and the University of Kansas.

[edit] Awards

Davis was awarded the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize in 1973 for his book FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, which was also a nominee for the National Book Award. In addition, his next two volumes on Roosevelt were both chosen as among the ten best books of the year by The New York Times. Davis was also a Guggenheim Fellow in 1974.

[edit] Partial bibliography