Gustav Davidson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Davidson (1895 – 1971) was a poet, writer, and publisher. He is best remembered as the author of A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels, detailing the types of Angel classes and their roles.

Davidson attended Columbia University in New York City and worked for the Library of Congress. In addition to the Dictionary, Davidson published several collections of his poems, including Songs of Adoration (1919), Twenty Sonnets (1926), Lilith (1928), Mortal Hunger (1943), Thirst of the Antelope (1945), Moment of Visitation (1950), Ambushed by Angels (1965), and All Things Are Holy (1970). He wrote a dramatic adaptation of Melmoth the Wanderer in collaboration with playwright Joseph Koven. As the titles of some of his works indicate, much of Davidson's verse is religious and spiritual in outlook and subject matter.

Davidson edited A Half Century of Sonnets (1924), and the 1950 collection In Fealty to Apollo for the Poetry Society of America, an organization for which he served as Secretary. (The Society established a Gustav Davidson Memorial Award in his honor.) He also edited periodicals devoted to poetry: The Poetry Chapbook and Poet Lore: A Quarterly of World Literature. He headed Fine Editions Press and established and ran the Davidson Printing Corporation, both of which specialized in the publication of contemporary poetry.

Beyond the confines of poetry, Davidson wrote First Editions in American Juvenilia and Problems in Their Identification (1939) and other works on bibliography and book collecting. He was also active as a translator and a book designer.