Clifford Dowdey

Clifford Dowdey (1904–1979) was an American author of fiction and nonfiction dealing with the American South, Virginia and especially the Civil War era.

Biography

Clifford Dowdey was born in Richmond, Virginia January 23, 1904 and died there May 30, 1979. The Richmond Newspapers, the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Richmond News Leader eulogized him as The Last Confederate. His father was descended from immigrants surnamed O'Dowda of County Galway, Ireland, and his mother from an English settler of Jamestown. His father worked for Western Union and his mother was a housewife. Four of his grandmother’s brothers were Confederate soldiers. His grandmother lived with his family until she died when Dowdey was age 19. Her reminiscences spurred his lifelong interest in the American Civil War and the history of Virginia.^[1]

He attended Columbia University from 1921-1925. He worked for about a year as a newspaper reporter and book reviewer for the Richmond News Leader. He returned to New York City and worked as an editor for various pulp magazines (Munsey’s, Argosy and Dell) from 1926 to around 1935. About 1933 he started writing seriously on what eventually would become his first novel "Bugles Blow No More.” Leaving the magazines, he and his wife moved to Florida for a season and then to Richmond, Virginia where he finished the novel. For the rest of his life, he lived in Richmond and worked as a writer of historical fiction and history. He reviewed others' historical works in academic journals, such as "The Journal of Southern History" and " The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography." Even though he had no formal training as an historian several of his works received critical acclaim by noted historians. His historical novels were popular as evidenced by their being reviewed in "The New York Times."^[2]

The circumstance of his first marriage is unknown. In an interview published in The New York Times July 13, 1941, he made reference to a wife as early as 1934 or 1935. On July 13, 1944, he married Frances Wilson, a clinical psychologist; she died July 1970.^[3] He was the father of two daughters, Frances and Sarah.

Publications

Clifford Dowdey wrote both novels and historical works, including:

Novels

• "Bugles Blow No More." Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1937.
• "Gamble's Hundred." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1939.
• "Sing for a Penny." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1941.
• "Tidewater." Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1943.
• "Where My Loves Sleeps." Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1945.
• "Weep for My Brother." Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1950.
• "Jasmine Street." Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1952.
• "The Proud Retreat: A Novel of the Lost Confederate Treasure." Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1953.
• "Last Night the Nightingale." Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1962.

Historical Works

• "Experiment in Rebellion." Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1946.
• "The Land They Fought for: Story of the South as the Confederacy, 1832 -1865." Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1955.
• "The Great Plantation: A Profile of Berkeley Hundred and Plantation Virginia from Jamestown to Appomattox." New York: Rinehart, 1957.
• "Death of a Nation: The story of Lee and His Men at Gettysburg." New York: A A. Knopf, 1958.
• "Lee's Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men Against Grant - 1864." University of Nebraska Press, 1960.
• Ed., "Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee." Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1961.
• "The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1964.
• "Lee," with photographs and maps by the Samuel H. Bryant. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1965.
• "Lee." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1965.
• "The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of 'King' Carter and the Golden Age." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1969.
• "The Golden Age: A Climate for Greatness, Virginia 1732-1775." Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1970.

Notes

In Jonathan Schwartz memoir, "All in Good Time" he mentions that his mother Katherine was married to Dowdey sometime before 1934 when she married Arthur Schwartz, his composer father.

References

• Taylor, W. D. "Virginia Authors Past and Present." 1972.
• New York Times 13 July 1941.