ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512040060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TORONTO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Canadian author Robertson Davies, whose forgiving, lighthearted treatment of emotionally troubled characters won him an international audience, has died. He was 82.
Davies died Saturday night in a hospital in Orangeville, 50 miles northwest of Toronto, after suffering a stroke, secretary Moira Whalon said Sunday.
The author of more than 30 plays and novels, Davies' best-known works are two trilogies written in the 1970s and 1980s packed with magic, arcana and Jungian theories.
Davies' work has been translated into 17 languages, and he was mentioned as a possible winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature, which was won by American novelist and essayist Toni Morrison.
His last novel, ``The Cunning Man,'' was a best seller this year. He was planning to write another book after Christmas dealing with his old age, his wife said.
The trilogy ``Fifth Business'' (1970), ``The Manticore'' (1972) and ``World of Wonders'' (1975) centered on the fictional Ontario town of Deptford. ``The Manticore'' won the 1973 Governor General's award for fiction.
The later trilogy - ``Rebel Angels'' (1981), ``What's Bred in the Bone'' (1985) and ``The Lyre of Orpheus'' (1988) - revolved around the life of a mysterious art collector.
Davies' best-known novels had a generous mix of greed and murder, adultery and blackmail, heartache and insanity. But he also set a light, generous tone. He understood his characters' fear and confusion, their longing for love and acceptance, their career ambitions and their problems with self-esteem.
Robertson William Davies was born Aug. 28, 1913, in Thamesville, Ontario. At the age of 4, he got his first taste of acting in the theater, which would remain an important theme in his life and many of his books.
He studied at Oxford's Balliol College and later acted, wrote and taught at London's celebrated Old Vic Theater.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB