Lawrence James Davis (better known as L. J. Davis; July 2, 1940 – April 5, 2011) was an American writer, whose novels focused on Brooklyn, New York. Davis's novel, ''A Meaningful Life'', described by the '' Village Voice'' as a "scathing 1971 satire about a reverse-pioneer from Idaho who tries to redeem his banal existence through the renovation of an old slummed-up Brooklyn town house", was reissued in 2009, with an introduction by

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was publishe ...

. Lethem, a childhood friend of one of Davis's sons, praised the novel in an essay about Brooklyn authors, which resulted in

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reprinting it after nearly 40 years. A 2021 retrospective on Davis's novels published on '' Lit Hub'' described his writings as some of the earliest prototypes of modern-day gentrification narratives. Davis served in the

Army National Guard The Army National Guard (ARNG), in conjunction with the Air National Guard, is an organized Militia (United States), militia force and a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States A ...

and graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1962. He completed two years of graduate work in history at Columbia University before returning to Stanford as a Stegner Fellow in creative writing for the 1964–1965 academic year; thereafter, he moved to Brooklyn. While living in Brooklyn, Davis participated in the brownstoning neighborhood association that named his South Brooklyn neighborhood of

Boerum Hill Boerum Hill (pronounced ) is a small neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bounded by Schermerhorn Street to the north and Fourth Avenue to the east. The western border is variously given as either Sm ...

, where he owned his own brownstone and rented out another nearby home to tenants. He was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1975 to write fiction, but then began to write journalism, notably for ''

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''. He received the 1982

Gerald Loeb Award The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

for Magazines for a two part story on the Hunt brothers' attempt to corner the world silver market. Davis died at his home in Brooklyn on April 5, 2011.

Novels

* ''Whence All But He Had Fled'' (1968) * ''Cowboys Don't Cry'' (1969, Viking Press. reprinted 1970,

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) * ''A Meaningful Life'' (1971, 2009) * ''Walking Small'' (1974)

Non-fiction books

* ''Bad Money: Big Business Disasters in the Age of a Credit Crisis'' (1982) * ''Billionaire Shell Game: How Cable Baron John Malone and Assorted Corporate Titans Invented a Future Nobody Wanted'' (1998) * ''Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution'' (2003)

References

1941 births 2011 deaths American historical novelists American male journalists 20th-century American novelists Journalists from Brooklyn Place of birth missing American male novelists 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers Gerald Loeb Award winners for Magazines 20th-century American journalists {{US-journalist-1940s-stub