Marcia Davenport Music Manuscripts collection

Marcia Davenport (née Abigail Glick) was born June 9, 1903 to Bernard Glick and famed operatic singer Alma Gluck. At the age of nine, Marcia’s parents divorced. Two years later Alma Gluck remarried to violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Marcia studied briefly at Wellesley College but left to marry her first husband, Frank D. Clarke; she would eventually earn her B.A. at the University of Grenoble.

After the birth of her first child, Patricia, and the subsequent departure of her first husband, Marcia became a staff writer at the New Yorker, contributing pieces to the magazine for several years. After her marriage to her second husband, Russell Davenport, Marcia was inspired to write her first book, a biography of Mozart, the first written by an American. After receiving both critical and public acclaim for the biography, Marcia continued to publish the occasional novel. The first of these novels was Of Lena Geyer, a story that took inspiration from the life of her mother and other contemporary singers.

Marcia was a frequent contributor to various publications and radio broadcasts, including Reader’s Digest, the Saturday Evening Post, and the Metropolitan Opera. She died on January 16, 1996 in Monterey, California.