Gustav Davidson (December 25, 1895 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

, Poland – February 6, 1971 in Santa Cruz, United States) was an American poet, writer, and publisher. He was one time secretary of the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

Biography

Gustav Davidson was born on December 25, 1895, in

, Poland. In the wake of anti-Jewish pogroms in Poland, his family fled to the United States, settling in New York City in 1907. Davidson received bachelor's and master's degrees at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1919 and 1920 respectively. He worked for the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

between 1938 and 1939 and became executive secretary of the Poetry Society of America from 1949 to 1965 (after which he was elected executive secretary emeritus).

''A Dictionary of Angels''

He is today best remembered as the author of ''A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels'' (1967), a popular work detailing the types of

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...

classes and their roles. This was a popularised compendium of

angelology In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

from

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

, medieval occult writers, gothic grimoires and other sources. He also wrote articles, such as on encounters with angels, in the parapsychological ''Tomorrow'' magazine of medium

Eileen J. Garrett Eileen Jeanette Vancho Lyttle Garrett (17 March 1893 – 15 September 1970) was an Irish medium and parapsychologist. Garrett's alleged psychic abilities were tested in the 1930s by Joseph Rhine and others. Rhine claimed that she had genuine ...

.Tomorrow: Volume 10 1962 "THE GUISE OF ANGELS by Gustav Davidson ... Admittedly, encounters "in the flesh" with angels or demons have become increasingly rare and suspect, but such encounters should not be dismissed as wholly fanciful."

Poetry

In addition to the ''Dictionary,'' Davidson published several collections of his poems, including ''Songs of Adoration'' (1919), ''Twenty Sonnets'' (1926), ''Lilith'' (1928), ''Mortal Hunger'' (1943), ''Thirst of the Antelope'' (1945), ''Moment of Visitation'' (1950), ''Ambushed by Angels & Other Poems'' (1965), and ''All Things Are Holy'' (1970). He wrote a dramatic adaptation of ''

Melmoth the Wanderer ''Melmoth the Wanderer'' is an 1820 Gothic novel by Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Maturin. The novel's titular character is a scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life, and searches the wo ...

'' in collaboration with playwright Joseph Koven. As the titles of some of his works indicate, much of Davidson's verse is religious and spiritual in outlook and subject matter. Davidson edited ''A Half Century of Sonnets'' (1924), and the 1950 collection ''In Fealty to Apollo'' for the

, an organization for which he served as secretary. (The society established a Gustav Davidson Memorial Award in his honor.) He also edited periodicals devoted to poetry: ''The Poetry Chapbook'' and ''Poet Lore: A Quarterly of World Literature.'' He headed Fine Editions Press and established and ran the Davidson Printing Corporation, both of which specialized in the publication of contemporary poetry. Beyond the confines of poetry, Davidson wrote ''First Editions in American Juvenilia and Problems in Their Identification'' (1939) and other works on bibliography and

book collecting Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is ''bibliophilia'', and some ...

. He was also active as a translator and a book designer.

References

Works

*''Melmoth, the wanderer; a play in five acts'' Boston, The Poet Lore Company 1915 *''Songs of adoration'' Boston, The Madrigal 1919 *''A half century of sonnets'' New York, N.L. Brown, 1924 *''First editions in American juvenilia and problems in their identification, '' hicagoNormandie House c1939 {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Gustav 1895 births 1971 deaths American male poets American librarians Librarians at the Library of Congress 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Congress Poland emigrants to the United States