Books: Richard the Literary Lion

THE RICHARD HARDING DAVIS YEARS (336 pp.)—Gerald Lanqford—Holt, Rinehart & Winston ($5.75).

Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916) is one of the century's more vividly forgotten men of letters. His name survives only as a journalistic legend and on the title pages of a few perennially popular books (The Bar Sinister, Van Bibber and Others) read mostly now by children. But 50 years ago, as this workmanlike biography recalls, R.H.D. was one of the most famous writers in America—a world-prowling literary lion who became the most flamboyantly successful reporter of his era, created the archetype...