Christopher Davis
Christopher Davis was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1928 and raised there. He was educated at public schools; at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Institute; at the Art Students League in New York; at the Barnes Art Foundation in Philadelphia; at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome; and at the University of Pennsylvania (junior year Phi Beta Kappa, BA degree).
His father was the Philadelphia labor lawyer Edward Davis. His mother, Josephine Blitzstein Davis, was a social activist. His uncle was Marc Blitzstein, the American composer. His brother Stephen is a retired banking lawyer who now teaches law. He is the father of four daughters--Kirby Bosley, Katherine Davis, Emily Davis and Sarah Davis. He is married to Sally Warner, the artist and children's book author, with whom he lives in Altadena, California.
Davis has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania; at Bowling Green State University in Ohio; at Drexel University in Philadelphia; at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania; at Rider College in New Jersey; and, from 1977 to 1995, at Bryn Mawr College. He is Senior Lecturer in the Arts emeritus from Bryn Mawr College.
He has published eleven novels, three books of non-fiction, a book for children, and numerous articles and short stories in magazines such as Esquire, Holiday, Travel & Leisure, and The Pennsylvania Gazette. His short story "A Man of Affairs" was an O'Henry prize story and was the basis for a play produced by the Actors Theater of Louisville. His novels have been published in England, Sweden, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Holland as well as the United States. His novel Lost Summer was adapted for the stage under the title "There was a little Girl" and produced on Broadway with Jane Fonda in the principal role. His adaptation to the stage of his novel A Peep Into the 20th Century was given staged readings at the Long Wharf Theater and at the Annenberg Theater, and was produced first by the Seattle Repertory Company, and later by the Philadelphia Festival of new plays. The text has been published by Plays in Process, Volume Ten Number Eight.