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Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis, American short story writer, novelist, and essayist

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Born
July 15, 1947
Age in 2026
79
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1947

About Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis is an American short story writer, novelist, essayist, and translator from French and other languages, who often writes very short stories. Davis has produced several new translations of French literary classics, including Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Vigilance as how to realise things down to the very word or syllable; vigilance as to everybody's impure motives and illusions of feeling." Davis won £60,000 as part of the biennial award. Her most recent collections were Varieties of Disturbance, a finalist for the National Book Award published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2007, and Can't and Won't (2013).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Lydia Davis timeline

  1. Her most recent collections were Varieties of Disturbance, a finalist for the National Book Award published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2007, and Can't and Won't (2013).
  2. June 2007. "Can't and Won't".

The world when Lydia Davis was born

Lydia Davis was born in 1947. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1947

  • #1 song"Near You" – Francis Craig
  • Top movieMiracle on 34th Street
  • Top TV showHowdy Doody
  • Best-selling bookThe Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJackie Robinson breaks baseball's color barrier
  • Top headlineJackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier
  • Technology milestoneTransistor invented at Bell Labs
  • Defining fadFlying saucer mania
  • Notable inventionPolaroid instant camera
  • World population2.47 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (BAA)
  • U.S. population144.1M

1947 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Lydia Davis's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19472026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$7,800$435,000
Average income$4,700$67,500
Minimum wage$0.40$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.40$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population144.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.