Paxton Davis (1925-1994)
James Paxton Davis (1925-1994) was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and graduated from R.J. Reynolds High School and Johns Hopkins University. In 1949, he joined the staff of the Twin City Sentinel. He also worked for the Winston-Salem Journal and The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Davis taught journalism at Washington and Lee University from 1953 to 1969 and headed the university’s Journalism and Communications Department from 1968 until his retirement in 1976. Davis authored 10 books and was writing an 11th at the time of his death. He is best known for his trilogy of autobiographical novels depicting growing up in Depression-era North Carolina: Being a Boy (1988), A Boy’s War (1989), and A Boy No More (1992).
