George Davis

George Davis (February 4, 1906 – November 25, 1957) was an American fiction editor and a novelist. Early life As the youngest of five boys (the eldest sibling, a sister, died of diphtheria before he was born) Davis was born on February 4, 1906, in Chicago to Canadian immigrants. George's father worked as a pharmacist for a cousin who owned a pharmacy on Clark Street on the near north side. While working in the pharmacy at night, George's father went to medical school by day and graduated from the University of Illinois' College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago on June 4, 1909, when Davis was 3 years old. In 1910, the family moved to Clinton, Michigan. Before the United States entered World War I in 1917 Davis' oldest brother, Harold, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France where he served as a motorcycle courier, traveling between the command in the rear and the front lines, often through enemy territory. After the United States entered the War the family moved to Highland Park in 1918, a city in the center of Detroit. Shortly afterwards The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 began and George's family were keen observers as his father was frequently absent from the home, treating the sick, many of whom were housed in tents. He would come home only to eat or for a change of clothes before heading out again. George was enrolled in the Tilden Elementary School in 1918. As an insatiable reader, he was no longer interested in juvenile books so his father obtained special permission for George to read adult literature, after which he frequented the libraries, reading a book a day. He quickly established himself as an able reader with a good memory. He graduated from Tilden in 1919 and enrolled in Central High School.