Book Description
Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.THE EARLY DAYS

II.COLLEGE DAYS

III.FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCES

IV.NEW YORK

V.FIRST TRAVEL ARTICLES

VI.THE MEDITERRANEAN AND PARIS

VII.FIRST PLAYS

VIII.CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

IX.MOSCOW, BUDAPEST, LONDON

X.CAMPAIGNING IN CUBA, AND GREECE

XI.THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

XII.THE BOER WAR

XIII.THE SPANISH AND ENGLISH CORONATIONS

XIV.THE JAPANESE-RUSSIAN WAR

XV.MOUNT KISCO

XVI.THE CONGO

XVII.A LONDON WINTER

XVIII.MILITARY MANOEUVRES

XIX.VERA CRUZ AND THE GREAT WAR

XX.THE LAST DAYSDownload Description
I left Key West on the morning of the 24th in the Dolphin with the idea of trying to get on board the flagship on the strength of Roosevelt's letter. Stenie Bonsal got on just before she sailed, not as a correspondent, but as a magazine-writer for McClure's, who have given him a commission, and because he could act as interpreter. I left the flagship the morning of the day I arrived. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a study of the early writings of Richard Harding Davis, the premier American journalist of the 1890s, best remembered for his coverage of the Spanish-American War. The emphasis of the book is on Davis's reporting—including several volumes of travel writing, covering trips to the Near East and South and Central America. Some account is also made of his fiction, most especially "Soldiers of Fortune" (1897), which critics have seen as a romantic treatment of the imperialist élan. As such, the novel serves as a prolegomenon to the war in Cuba, which Davis covered during its insurrectionist stage. He later accompanied Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders when U.S. forces invaded the island in 1898, an action he had urged and may have in part inspired.

John Seelye argues that Davis, rather than supporting the notion of an American empire on the Roman or British plan, advocated what would become U.S. strategy over the next century: a limited engagement in support of embryonic democratic movements in the Caribbean, followed by withdrawal of armed forces once a stable government had been established. While approving British methods when they seemed in accord with his ideas of fairness, Davis was critical of the English presence in Egypt and was scathing in his treatment of the Boer War, championing the Dutch settlers over the invading army.

Like many others associated with the Spanish-American War, Davis was an ardent fan of football: fair play and good sportsmanship were integral to his notions of democratic expansionism, hence the title of this book. Seelye not only brings Davis into the mainstream of recent historical treatments of American imperialism, but makes a case that Davis was, as his contemporaries regarded him, a master of journalistic style. ... Read more