Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis (, Moore; pen name, M. E. M. Davis; April 12, 1844 - January 1, 1909) was an American poet, writer, and editor of the long nineteenth century. From the age of 14, she wrote regularly for the press and other periodicals. A critic said of her that she was "more thoroughly Texan in subject, in imagery and spirit than any of the Texas poets," and that scarcely any other than a native Texan could "appreciate all the merits of her poems, so strongly marked are they by the peculiarities of Texas scenery and patriotism." In 1889, Thomas Davis became editor of the New Orleans Picayune.
Early life and education
Mary Evalina Moore was born in Talladega, Alabama, April 12, 1844. She was the only daughter of Dr. John Moore and Lucy Crutchfield. Her father, born at Oxford, Massachusetts, after receiving classical training and graduating in medicine, had removed to Alabama. Her mother's family, from a Virginia family, was resident in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and two of her maternal uncles, Thomas and William, attained the rank of colonel, the former in the Confederate, the latter in the Union army. Her father distinguished himself as a pioneer in the manufacture of iron in Alabama, discovering the ore in 1848, smelting it with charcoal, and forging it into bars under a trip hammer operated by water power. A few years before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Dr. Moore removed to Texas with his family and engaged in the planting of cotton. It was there at La Rose Blanche Plantation, in Hays County on the banks of the San Marcos River that the early years of Davis were passed.
At La Rose Blanche Plantation, she received her education from private tutors, and there her talent for versification began to display itself. With her brother, she learned not only to read, but to ride, shoot and swim.
Career
In 1874, she married Major Thomas Edward Davis, for many years the editor of The Daily Picayune. The removed subsequently to New Orleans, and took up their residence in the centre of the old French Quarter. She was admitted into the innermost circle of the most exclusive Creole society, and enjoyed advantages for the study of it. She exploited these opportunities, making herself for many years a vital part of that society. At the same time, not being of Creole heritage, she was able to maintain a certain detachment and objectivity in point of view that lent especial value to her writing. She was careful to lay a solid foundation of accurate knowledge beneath her imaginative constructions, dedicating months of preliminary study of some historical circumstance or the understanding of some obscure tradition or custom connected with the plot of her story.
Poetry
Davis' first volume of poems, entitled Minding the Gap, and Other Poems (Houston, Texas) was published in 1867, and passed through further editions after being enlarged and corrected. Among the best known and most admired of Davis' short poems were "Going Out and Coming In," "San Marcos River," "Stealing Roses Through the Gate," "Lee at the Wilderness," and a few others found in collections of American verse. The mystic prose poem, "The Song of the Opal", the classical "Pere Dagobert," "Throwing the Wanga," "The Center rigger," and "The Elephant's Track," were written for Harper's Magazine, while many poems and sketches were published in other periodicals.
Short stories
It is in the short-story that Davis has perhaps achieved her greatest success. Many of these were written for the northern monthlies, and some were collected and republished in An Elephant's Track and Other Stories. Here she introduced a great variety of motifs as well as of incidents and characters. The lighter and more humorous aspects of life were her favorites. As a prose writer, Davis attracted as many readers and as much admiration as when she indulged in verses. Her short stories, such as "The Song of the Opal," "The Soul of Rose Dede," and "A Miracle," were well received, and a volume of sketches entitled In War Times at La Rose Blanche (Boston, 1888), elicited such commendations from the press as to call for a French translation for the columns of La Revue des Deux Mondes. "Keren Happuch and I" was a series of sketches contributed to the New Orleans Picayune. "Snaky baked a Hoe-Cake," "Grief" and others, contributed to Wide Awake in 1876, were among the first, if not the very first, African American Vernacular English stories which appeared in print.