April 18

Richard Harding Davis was born this day. He was a journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. His writing greatly assisted the political career ofTheodore Roosevelt and he also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion and he is credited with making the clean

-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.

Davis became a managing editor of Harper's Weekly, and was one of the world's leading war correspondents at the time of the Second Boer War in South Africa. As an American, he had the opportunity to see the war first-hand from both the British and Boer perspectives. Davis also worked as a reporter for the New York Herald, The Times, and Scribner's Magazine.

He was popular among a number of leading writers of his time, and is considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also mentioned early in Sinclair Lewis's book Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero.

During the Spanish-American War, Davis was on a United States Navy warship when he witnessed the shelling of Matanzas, Cuba, a part of theBattle of Santiago de Cuba. Davis' story made headlines, but as a result, the Navy prohibited reporters from being aboard any American naval vessel for the rest of the war.

Davis with Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba, 1898.

Davis was a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and he helped create the legend surrounding the Rough Riders, for which he was made an honorary member. Some[who?] have even gone so far to accuse Davis of involvement in William Randolph Hearst's alleged plot to have started the war between Spain and the United States in order to boost newspaper sales; however, Davis refused to work for Hearst after a dispute over fictionalizing one of his articles.

Bessie and Hope Davis.

Despite his alleged association with Yellow journalism, his writings of life and travel in Central America, the Caribbean, Rhodesiaand South Africa during the Second Boer War were widely published. He was one of many war correspondents who covered theRusso-Japanese War from the perspective of the Japanese forces.

Davis had success with his 1897 novel Soldiers of Fortune that he turned into a play and was later filmed twice, once in 1914 and in 1919 by Allan Dwan.

Davis later reported on the Salonika Front of the First World War where he was arrested by the Germans as a spy but was released.

Davis was married twice, first to Cecil Clark, an artist, in 1899, and then to Bessie McCoy in 1912, an actress and Vaudevilleperformer, who is remembered for her signature Yama Yama Man routine. Davis and Bessie had a daughter, Hope.

He died of a heart attack on April 11, 1916, seven days before his 52nd birthday.