First published 2009
This collection assembles the varied writings of H. L. Davis, Oregon's only Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. Born in the Umpqua Valley in 1894, Davis worked as a sheepherder, cattle puncher, and deputy sheriff before turning to literature. He initially wrote poetry during World War I, then shifted to prose with encouragement from critic H. L. Mencken. Davis won the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine at twenty-five and later earned the Pulitzer for his 1935 novel Honey in the Horn, which Mencken praised as America's finest debut novel. The anthology includes his best essays, stories, and poems, plus selections from his acclaimed novels and personal letters about his writing process. Davis possessed unmatched knowledge of Northwest landscapes, weather, flora, and fauna. His work captures the smell of forest winds, varieties of Oregon rain, and high-desert heat through earthy backwoods characters and colloquial narrative voice.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, american, biography-memoir
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, lyrical
Tropes: literary-fiction, regional-literature
Setting: Umpqua Valley, Oregon
Period: World War I, 1935
320 pages · Paperback · Oregon State University Press