DAVISON, Peter (Hubert) 1928-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 27, 1928, in New York, NY; died of pancreatic cancer December 29, 2004, in Beacon Hill, MA. Editor and author. Davison was a prominent literary editor for the Atlantic Monthly Press and Atlantic Monthly, as well as a critically praised poet in his own right. After graduating from Harvard University in 1949, Davison entered the publishing business as an editorial assistant at Harcourt, Brace in New York. In 1955 he briefly joined the Harvard University Press staff before moving on to Atlantic Monthly Press the next year. At Atlantic, he helped edit the works of various well-known writers, such as Ward Just and Farley Mowat. A poet himself, he also became friends with many famous poets, including Sylvia Plath and Robert Frost. Davison remained at Atlantic Monthly Press until 1985, serving as executive editor in the early 1960s and as director from 1964 until 1979. He spent an additional six years there as senior editor. From 1985 until 1998, he was a poetry editor for the publisher Houghton Mifflin. As a poet, Davison wrote of everyday life, loss, and memories of his past. He published eleven collections in his lifetime, including The Breaking of the Day and Other Poems (1964), Walking the Boundaries: Poems, 1957-1974 (1974), and The Poems of Peter Davison, 1957-1995 (1995). He also wrote or edited books about poets and poetry, such as One of the Dangerous Trades: Essays on the Work and Workings of Poetry (1991) and The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 1955-1960, from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath (1994), as well as the autobiography Half Remembered: A Personal History (1973; revised edition, 1991).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, December 31, 2004, section 1, p. 9.

Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2005, p. B15.

New York Times, January 1, 2005, p. A12.