DAVIS, Hope Hale 1903-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born November 2, 1903, in Columbus Junction, IA; died October 2, 2004, in Boston, MA. Feminist, educator, and author. Davis was a feminist and former Communist Party member who also wrote short stories and taught fiction writing at Radcliffe University. Raised by her teacher mother when her father died before she was born, Davis did not attend college, instead finding work as a magazine editor, writer, and columnist who worked for the Daily Worker and contributed to Private Eye magazine. Developing left-wing beliefs, she held a strong feminist point of view, which she expressed in the short stories she wrote, some of which were published in the New Yorker and other magazines. She was also a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s. Though she abandoned the party officially in 1939 after Josef Stalin signed a pact with Nazi Germany, she remained a leftist in her heart all her life. Davis also followed a radical personal lifestyle for the times, marrying four husbands over the years. The first was a brief marriage to a Vaudeville scenery painter; this was followed by her marriage to journalist Claud Cockburn. The sole purpose of the marriage was for Davis to have a child, whom she labeled her "Project Revolutionary Baby." After she became pregnant, the couple split up. Next, Davis married Hermann Brunck, an economist with whom she first joined the Communist Party in 1934. Brunck worked as a spy, infiltrating the German embassy. Unfortunately, the psychological strain of this work was too much for him, and he committed suicide in 1937. Davis's last marriage was to Columbia University professor Robert Gorham Davis. This was the most successful union, lasting from 1939 until his death in 1998. Besides this colorful life, which she later described in her 1994 autobiography, Great Day Coming: A Memoir of the 1930s, Davis was an author who released only one other book, a short-story collection titled The Dark Way to the Plaza (1968). Despite not having many credits to her name, and the fact she lacked a university degree, she was hired by Radcliffe in 1985 to teach writing. She enjoyed a successful career there as an instructor, and at one point was named Teacher of the Year.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Chicago Tribune, October 8, 2004, section 1, p. 11.

Guardian (London, England), October 15, 2004, p. 31.

Los Angeles Times, October 7, 2004, p. B11.

New York Times, October 5, 2004, p. B8.

Washington Post, October 9, 2004, p. B6.