Basil Davenport (1905–1966) was an American literary critic, academic, anthologist, and writer of science fiction novels[1] and other genres.
He was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 7, 1905, the son of Ira William Davenport and Emily Andrews Davison.
He attended the Taft School, graduated from Yale in 1926, studied the classics for two years at the University of Oxford, and then taught at Rutgers.
[5] He frequently wrote introductions to works by other authors, such as The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, and The House of the Seven Gables[6] by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
[7] His edited books include The Portable Roman Reader[8] and in 1955 a short critical study, Inquiry into Science Fiction.