Lexington legend: Guy Mattison Davenport was prominent UK author, poet & professor
Editor’s note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history – some funny, some sad; others heartbreaking or celebratory; and some just downright strange.
Jan. 4, 2005: Guy Mattison Davenport, noted University of Kentucky professor, poet and author, dies of lung cancer in Lexington. He was 77.
Born in Anderson, S.C., Davenport turned to literature at age 14 after a skating accident left him with a broken leg. Three years before that, he started a neighborhood newspaper. Davenport attended Duke University to study art and English Literature, then later spent two years as a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, England, where he studied under J.R.R. Tolkien.
When he returned to the U.S., he served for a bit in the military and later befriended writer Ezra Pound. After earning his PhD. at Harvard University, he took a position at the University of Kentucky, which he called, “the remotest offer with the most pay.” He continued teaching at UK until he received the MacArthur Fellowship and retired in 1990.
Over the course of his career, he wrote more than 17 books, published numerous volumes of poetry and penned more than 400 essays.
