Literary Giants - Robertson Davies

William Robertson Davies was born August 28, 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario. His father, Senator William Rupert Davies was also a newspaperman. His mother was Florence Sheppard McKay. Davies was the youngest of three boys. Both of his parents were avid readers and he read everything he could get his hands on. At age 3 he appeared in the opera Queen Esther which would spark a life long interest in drama.

In 1918 the family moved to Renfrew, Ontario where he lived the life of the typical country boy attending country schools. When he was 12 the family moved to Kingston and with all of the moves came the knowledge of life in urban and rural areas. He attended Upper Canada College in Toronto and was involved in music, theater and editing the school newspaper. He went on to the Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1932 where he wrote for the school newspaper, The Queen’s Journal. He left Canada to attend Balliol College, Oxford and in 1938 he received a Bachelor of Literature degree. In 1939 he published his thesis, Shakespeare’s Boy Actors.

In 1940 he began an acting career near London. He met and married Brenda Mathews who worked as stage manager for the theater in Oxford. They returned to Canada and he became editor for the Saturday Night magazine. Two years later he moved to the Peterborough Examiner as editor and then publisher and stayed for more than 20 years. During his time with the Examiner Davies published 18 of his books, produced a number of his own plays and wrote articles for various journals.

Davies first love was always drama, but he became frustrated by his inability to get his plays accepted outside of Canada. From that point on he would turn more and more to his writing. In 1960 Davies started teaching literature at Trinity College at the University of Toronto. In 1963 he became Master of Massey College, the new graduate college of the University of Toronto. He continued with his writing and it was during this period of time that he finished Fifth Business, a novel that many considered his best. He eventually retired from teaching but never from writing. He was also a sought after public speaker. He won several awards and recognition for his works.

Davies wrote numerous novels (often favoring trilogies), short stories, essays, letters, criticisms, plays and opera’s. There are 2 collections of conversations with Davies and quotes attributed to him that have been turned into books.

On December 2, 1995, Davies died of a stroke. He had lived a good life and had a distinguished career as a journalist, playwright and novelist.