Catherine Breese Davis (1924–2002)

Catherine Breese Davis was born in Minneapolis and left home under difficult circumstances at the age of 16. She studied at the University of Minnesota, the University of Chicago, Stanford University (where she held what is now the Stegner Fellowship), and the University of Iowa. Davis’s poetry was admired during her lifetime for her classical dexterity and formal innovation by many poets and critics, especially Donald Justice, a longtime supporter of her work.