Chuck Davis

Vancouver freelance writer Chuck Davis is a remarkable generator of lists. No wonder his favourite sport is a game driven by statistics – baseball. His lists quickly develop into book ideas. The lists are then added to the stacks and rows of written material in the large workspace of his home. He has a youthful enthusiasm for his work and his thinking sparkles with creativity. The start of his professional writing career began with the publication of his first book, Chuck Davis’s Guide to Vancouver, published in 1973. Davis has 15 books bearing his name. In addition to books, he’s written a variety of articles for magazines such as TV Guide, Beautiful BC Magazine, and Business in BC. Davis was a radio broadcaster with the CBC. In 1997, he personally financed the publishing of The Greater Vancouver Book. It won the 1998 City of Vancouver Book Award, and the 1998 Simon Fraser University Chancellor’s Award for Public Service. His current commission is a nearly completed history of the Orpheum Theatre. The work remaining is a classic Davis touch. He wants to use the book’s end flaps to list the names of every performer who has ever appeared on the Orpheum’s stage. As a measure of his reputation and abilities, his last five books are the result of his being approached with writing commissions. He’s also working on a history of the work civil engineers have performed in shaping Vancouver – how the city was built. In the coming years, he sees himself continuing as a writer. A career-crowning achievement would be The Really Big Book of the History of Vancouver.