Levette J. Davidson, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetLevette J. Davidson
American folklorist
Date of Birth: 16-May-1894
Date of Death: 14-May-1957
Profession: folklorist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Taurus 
About Levette J. Davidson
- Levette J.
- Davidson was a nationally acclaimed expert in folklore, especially that of Colorado and the West.
- He was born in Eureka, Illinois May 16, 1894, one of four children.
- Because his grand uncle was past-President of Eureka College, a Christian seminary, Davidson was reared in the school's shadow with the option of becoming either a teacher or a preacher.
- He chose teaching and was awarded his B.A.
- from Eureka in 1915.
- A year later he received his A.M.
- degree from the University of Illinois where he received Phi Beta Kappa honors.
- In 1917 he earned his M.A.
- in social science and history at Harvard University.
- __During World War I, he served with the Tenth Infantry of the Forty-Sixth Division and also served as an army sergeant in Intelligence.
- Davidson and his wife Mary, also a graduate of Eureka, were married in 1918.
- At the end of the war, Davidson simultaneously taught and studied at the University of Michigan where he earned a Ph.D.
- in languages and literatures in 1922.
- He arrived in Denver later that year and began teaching at the University of Denver.
- Before arriving in Colorado, his academic specialty was eighteenth century England.
- Once in Denver, he realized that Western literature and folklore would be his life work.
- Davidson taught at the University of Denver until his death in 1957.
- His course topics ranged from studies of Shakespeare and other English literature, to folklore in the West.
- He began teaching news writing and eventually founded the journalism department at the University as well as the board of publications and the press club.
- He was the first faculty member elected to serve as president of the University Senate.
- In 1940 he became head of the English Department and from March to August 1953 he served as interim Chancellor.
- At the time of assuming his post, he remarked: There is hardly an organization on campus that I have not been connected with at one time or another.
- Davidson was named University Lecturer for 1956.
- Davidson was a director of the Colorado State Historical Society, the Modern Languages Association, the American Folklore Society, and the American Dialect Society.
- He was a charter member of the Denver Posse of the Westerners, an organization devoted to western folklore.
- In spare moments, Davidson conducted research, wrote outlines for plays, and authored a large number of articles.
- He contributed to a wide range of magazines from Western American to Shakespeare Quarterly.
- Additionally, Davidson authored several books on folklore.
- The most widely recognized is Rocky Mountain Tales, which presents regional folklore as well as true accounts of early events in the area.
- Levette Davidson died May 14, 1957.
Read more at Wikipedia