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Robertson Davies

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Robertson Davies

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Also known as William Robertson Davies

Canadian novelist (1913-1995)

Person · Open Library

Born
1913-08-28
Died
1995-12-02
Works
232

Top works

  • At My Heart's Core
  • The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks
  • Tempest Tost
  • Cunning Man
  • The Personal Art

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Country
Canada
Active from
1913
Active to
1995

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
19
Total plays
173

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Robertson+Davies">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Robertson Davies

Quotes

  • Our fate lies in your hands, to you we prayFor an indulgent hearing of our play;Laugh if you can, or failing that, give ventIn hissing fury to your discontent;Applause we crave, from scorn we take defenceBut have no armour 'gainst indifference.
  • Only in the theatre was it possible to see the performers and to be warmed by their personal charm, to respond to their efforts and to feel their response to the applause and appreciative laughter of the audience. It had an intimate quality; audience and actors conspired to make a little oasis of happiness and mirth within the walls of the theatre. Try as we will, we cannot be intimate with a shadow on a screen, nor a voice from a box.
  • She made a great deal of money in her time and she spent it lavishly. Speaking of herself and her colleagues at the Metropolitan she said: "We were a race of giants." Quite true, and in case you don't know it, being a giant is a very expensive business. The cost of food and drink, not merely for oneself but for one's fellow-giants and one's scores of attendant gnomes, is a very considerable item. And the cost of jewels for a female giant is really fabulous.
  • The fall of France must have been a bitter pill to Calvé. She had a poor opinion of Germans, both as people and as artists. It is sad to imagine what her last days may have been in her "robber-baron's castle" as Peggy Wood calls it. But one thing is certain; when death came, Calvé met it with spirit. No one who knew so well how to greet life could possibly fail to know how to greet death.
  • The Wild Hunt is known in all Celtic countries; it is a huntsman with a pack of hounds who is seen or heard to rush through the country. Those who see him are doomed to die. The writer heard the Wild Hunt quite distinctly one night in Wales several years ago, but has not suffered any ill effects from it as yet.
  • There are people nowadays who think that Irving was a ranter and a ham; quite true, he was, but in the sense that Alexander the Great was a martinet and a butcher. Ranting and hamming are very necessary accomplishments for a great actor, and he is able to invest them with a greatness which lesser actors cannot approach.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1913-08-28 ) 28 August 1913, Thamesville, Ontario , Canada
Died
2 December 1995 (1995-12-02) (aged 82), Orangeville, Ontario , Canada
Occupation
Journalist, playwright, professor, critic, novelist
Alma mater
Queen's University (did not graduate), Balliol College, Oxford
Genre
Novels, plays, essays and reviews
Notable works
The Deptford Trilogy , The Cornish Trilogy , The Salterton Trilogy
Spouse
Brenda Ethel Davies (m. 1940, 1917–2013)

via Wikipedia infobox

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto.

Biography

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Robertson Davies” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.