Hope Hale Davis

Hope Hale Davis (née Frances Hope Hale; November 2, 1903 – October 2, 2004) was a 20th-century American feminist (or "proto-feminist") and communist, later a writer and writing teacher. Background Davis was born Frances Hope Hale on November 2, 1903 in Iowa City, Iowa, the fifth and youngest child of Hal Hale, a school superintendent, and Frances McFarland, a teacher. Her father died young, and her mother remarried to John Overholt. When her stepfather died, too, Davis and her mother moved to Washington, D.C. There, Davis studied at the new Corcoran School of Art and George Washington University, as well as Cincinnati University and the Portland School of Art. She did not obtain a college degree. Career In 1924, Davis became assistant to the Stuart Walker Repertory Company's art director, for whom she painted scenery and designed costumes. In 1926, she moved to New York City, where she worked in advertising as a secretary at the Frank Presbrey Agency. There, she wrote copy and sold drawings. She left to become a freelance writer, publishing stories in magazines such as Collier's, The New Yorker, and Bookman. In 1929, she became promotion manager for Life magazine. In 1931, she founded and edited Love Mirror, a women's pulp magazine.