Pessoa

Davies, Robertson

1913-1995

Robertson William Davies, born at Thamesville, Ontario on 28 Aug 1913; died at Toronto 2 December 1995. Davies is acknowledged as an outstanding essayist and brilliant novelist. Third son of Senator William Rupert Davies, Robertson Davies participated in stage productions as a child and developed a lifelong interest in drama. He attended Upper Canada College 1926-32 and went on to Queen's University 1932-35 as a special student not working towards a degree. At Balliol College, Oxford, he received the BLit in 1938. His thesis, "Shakespeare's Boy Actors", appeared in 1939, a year in which he pursued an acting career outside London. He spent 1940 playing minor roles and doing literary work for the director at the Old Vic Repertory Company in London. That year he married Brenda Mathews, a woman he had met at Oxford, who was then working as stage manager for the theatre.