Letters to the Editor: Mike Davis wrote about dark subjects, but he was full of light. He was a passionate writer. And he could tell the difference between good and evil. He also wrote about the good folks he knows.
I’m not saying Davis is perfect. He knows things. And he lives in a wonderful town (Hinesville).
But even though he writes about dark, evil things, and that should offend some, his writing was brilliant. It’s a shame more folks don’t read those wonderful letters and stories.
Davis’ letters make me think of the letters of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Poe wrote:
Your handwriting, it is the most delicate of the present age. And what most adds to the delicacy of your hands is the manner in which you use them – with a certain power and grace.
He described the “touch of that singular power,” how he could “feel a paper, even where it is on the point of breaking, yet without pain.” The letter writer can be like a doctor, but Davis is more like a poet.
My favorite letters Davis wrote were the ones that began with the question, “What must I do?” He wrote that to himself in those days. He said:
A man has only one business in life. He must earn his bread, and that by whatever means he can. That is the sum of his life’s ambition. He must work, and he must bear, and he must endure, and he must triumph, in order that he may have the bread that is dearer than all the world to him.
My mother and I wrote to Davis and he responded in these letters. But the one that touched me most was his reply to my questions in that letter:
Gentlemen:
Your letters have been of much interest to me. And there are many things in them that are not so easy to
