ABSTRACT
In 1890 Davis was promoted to the Chair of Physical Geography, at the early age of forty achieving his main ambition as regards academic promotion, and in a few short years advancing from near failure to resounding achievement. In the process he had developed an eloquence, poise and fluency which inspired his academic audiences with his ideas and enthusiasm. His effect on Mark Jefferson exemplified this:
When Jefferson enrolled at Harvard in 1896 he met a confident, well-read, much thinking, much published 46-year-old Davis who was finding a place for physical geography as a worthy discipline. Listening to Davis intently, seeing virtue in every idea, hungrily consuming Davis’ every spoken and written word, travelling many a field mile with the man, and believing in the value of earth science, was a perceptive, intelligent and well-travelled Jefferson. Davis had an educated audience in the 33-year-old Jefferson: Jefferson had a teacher. Davis and Jefferson were drawn closely together in an enduring relationship which extended from 1896 to the time of Davis’ death in 1934.
( Martin, 1968, p. 40)