Elmer Davis

Elmer Davis
Elmer Davis
Born	January 13, 1890 Aurora, Indiana
Died	May 18, 1958 (aged 68)
Occupation	Director, Office of War Information, World War II

Elmer Davis (January 13, 1890 – May 18, 1958) was a news reporter, author, the Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II and a Peabody Award recipient.

Davis was born in Aurora, Indiana, the son of a cashier for the First National Bank of Aurora. One of his first professional writing jobs was with the Indianapolis Star, a position he held while attending Franklin College. A brilliant student, Davis received a Rhodes Scholarship to Queen's College, Oxford in 1910. His stay in England was cut short when his father fell ill and eventually died. Davis met his wife, Florence, in England.

Upon his return to America, Davis became an editor for the pulp magazine Adventure, leaving after a year to work as a reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times. For the next decade, Davis reported on stories ranging from pugilist Jack Dempsey to evangelist Billy Sunday. It was his coverage of Billy Sunday that gained him notoriety. Davis later left The New York Times and became a freelance writer.

Davis' best-known work is his company history History of the New York Times. 1851–1921 (New York: The New York Times, 1921).

In 1928 Davis published his one and only novel Giant Killer, a retelling of the Biblical story of David.

In August 1939, Paul White, the news chief at CBS, asked Davis to fill in as a news analyst for H. V. Kaltenborn, who was off in Europe reporting on the increasingly hostile events. Davis became an instant success. Edward R. Murrow later commented that one reason he believed that Davis was likeable was his Hoosier accent, which reminded people of a friendly neighbor. By 1941, the audience for Davis' nightly five-minute newscast and comment was 12.5 million.

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