Marcia Davenport

Marcia Davenport (née Glick; June 9, 1903 – January 16, 1996) was an American writer and music critic.

Marcia Davenport was born Marcia Glick in New York City on June 9, 1903, the daughter of Bernard Glick and the opera singer Alma Gluck.

Her family is of Romanian-Jewish descent.

Around 1911, when Marcia was 8, her parents separated.

Her mother remarried Efrem Zimbalist, a concert violinist.

With Zimbalist as a step-father, Marcia had two half-siblings: Efrem Zimbalist Jr.. (who became an actor) and Maria Virginia Zimbalist Bennett.

She described her childhood as very lonely, apart from music and books (she always knew she wanted to write).

Her mother made her continue piano lessons as discipline throughout childhood despite her being very bad at it.

Growing up, Marcia traveled extensively with her parents.

Intermittently, she was educated at the Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr.

She began studies at Wellesley College but eloped to Pittsburgh after two years to marry her first husband, Frank Delmas Clarke.

After their divorce in 1925, she travelled abroad to complete her B.A. at the University of Grenoble.

After her divorce from Clarke in 1925, Davenport took an advertising copywriting job to support herself and her daughter.

From 1928 - 1930, she worked on the editorial staff of The New Yorker.

In 1930, Davenport travelled to Prague to research the life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart up close.

Portions of the book are set in 1930's Prague, depicting the increasingly grim atmosphere up to the Munich Agreement and the Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia.

In this Davenport made use of her knowledge of Prague, gained during the research for the Mozart book.

She is best known for her 1932 biography of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the first American published biography of Mozart.

In 1932, she published her first book, Mozart, which was also the first American published biography of the composer Mozart.

Widely praised, the book, which became Davenport's best known work, has remained continuously in print since its publication.

From 1934 - 1939, Davenport worked as the music critic of Stage magazine.

From 1936 - 1937, she also worked as a radio commentator on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

Through her opera-singing mother and violinist stepfather, Davenport had close ties to the classical music world, particularly the operatic world of Europe and America.

In 1936, Davenport published her novel, Of Lena Geyer. The story is a portrait of an opera singer, told through the eyes of a devoted fan, her French duke lover, a platonic female friend, her maestro, and others.

It is thought that inspiration for the book was taken from Davenport's mother, Alma Gluck.

Gluck was born in Romania as Reba Feinsohn; Alma Gluck later became her stage name as a soprano opera singer.

She was well known for being one of the 20th century's premier concert and recording artists.

If Of Lena Geyer is not based on Alma Gluck, it is possible Davenport took inspiration from her personal life experience, or from the tales of another opera singer, Olive Fremstad.

Lena's intense relationship with a conductor may have been based on a relationship between Gluck and Toscanini.

Suggestions of a lesbian relationship are not supported by the contents of the novel.

In 1942, Davenport published her most popular fiction novel, The Valley of Decision, a historical fiction saga which traces the Scott family, prototypical owners of an iron works in Pittsburgh, from 1873 to the events of World War II.

Davenport lived in Pittsburgh shortly after her first marriage with Frank Delmas Clarke, later using that background for her novel, along with further research on the steel industry, for the 788-page bestseller.

Davenport also is known for her novels The Valley of Decision and East Side, West Side, both of which were adapted to film in 1945 and 1949, respectively.

In 1947, East Side, West Side was published, also becoming a best-seller.

It was one of the last works edited by Maxwell Perkins of the Charles Scribner%27s Sons publishing house.

Of particular interest is her telling of the events leading up to the death of the Czech diplomat and foreign minister Jan Masaryk in the Czernin Palace in Prague in 1948 and of her close relationship with Masaryk over many years.

Two of Davenport's novels have been made into films, both released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: The Valley of Decision and East Side, West Side. The Valley of Decision starred Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Preston Foster, Marsha Hunt, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, Dan Duryea and Jessica Tandy.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Greer Garson) and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

East Side, West Side starred James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Ava Gardner.

Her memoir Too Strong for Fantasy (1967) describes the people, the music, the places and the political forces which shaped her life.