Howard Ellis Davis (1883-1951)

Soldier, Engineer, Author
Born August 14, 1883, Florida
Died April 25, 1951, Mobile, Alabama

Howard Ellis Davis was born on August 14, 1883, in Florida. During the Great War he served in the 319th Field Artillery, 82nd Division, and rose to the rank of major. An engineer for the Alabama Power Company and later the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), he moved often during the 1920s through the 1940s. In 1920 he was in Oak Grove, Alabama, and working as a writer. Nineteen thirty found him in Meriwether, Georgia, as a superintendent of a lumber plant. Ten years later Davis was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and director of a reservoir as part of the TVA. From 1933 to 1945, he was manager of the reservoir clearance division with the TVA. He moved to Bay Minette, Alabama, in 1945.

Howard Ellis Davis wrote more than one hundred stories for Adventure, Argosy, Breezy Stories, Detective Story Magazine, Droll Stories, People's Favorite Magazine, Short Stories, Top-Notch, Western Story Magazine, and other titles from 1916 to 1935. According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, his only credits in the fields of fantasy and science fiction were "The Unknown Beast" for Weird Tales (Mar. 1923) and "The Walking Shack" for Argosy (Nov. 29, 1930). Davis also wrote articles for The Editor. He died on April 25, 1951, in Mobile, Alabama, and was buried at Bay Minette Cemetery. He was working on a novel when he died.

Davis' son, Howard Ellis Davis, Jr. (1912-1992), was also an author. He had a story called "His First" in the Birmingham News-Age-Herald on October 11, 1936, as part of that newspaper's short story department. Artemus Calloway, who also contributed to Weird Tales, conducted that long-running feature.

Howard Ellis Davis' Story in Weird Tales

"The Unknown Beast" (Mar. 1923)

Further Reading

"Maj. Howard Ellis Davis, 67, Succumbs in Mobile Hospital" in the Birmingham News, April 26, 1951, page 33.

Two covers of Adventure with Davis' byline, from May 15, 1932 (top), and December 15, 1932 (bottom). The bottom cover is signed "A. Cucchi." Presumably that was Anthony Cucchi.

Updated on April 25, 2023.

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2023 Terence E. Hanley