Richard Beale Davis

Richard Beale Davis (June 3, 1907 – March 30, 1981) was an American academic who specialised in the history of the Southern United States, with a focus on its literature and intellectual history. His works included the 1978 book Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, which was awarded the National Book Award for history, as well as several other accolades. He taught at the University of Virginia, University of South Carolina, and University of Tennessee, among other places.

Davis was born in Accomac, Virginia, to a family with local religious and academic connections. He began teaching in the 1920s, receiving his master's degree from the University of Virginia in 1933 and his PhD in 1936. He joined the University of South Carolina as an associate professor of English in 1940, taking leave during the Second World War to teach for the United States Navy. Davis returned to South Carolina, then joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee. While there, he was involved with the James D. Hoskins Library and the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was made an Alumni Distinguished Service professor in 1962, and retired from teaching fifteen years later. During this time, he held several fellowships and was a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Davis's most-celebrated work was his 1978 book Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585–1763, a three-volume study of the history and culture of the American South. According to Jack P. Greene, it was the "single most comprehensive description ever undertaken of the cultural life of any segment of Britain's early modern American empire".^[1] Davis's reputation as a scholar was solidified through his large body of work, with Leo Lemay referring to him as "the greatest modern authority on early Southern literature".^[2]: 173 Similar views were offered by Louis D. Rubin Jr., praising the way he "decisively chartered and explored the colonial southern literary scene".^[3]: 11