Born in Yorkshire, England, Donald Davie's academic career has included teaching positions at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland; University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Cambridge; University of Essex; Stanford University; and Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, Professor Davie was appointed the first Mellon Professor of the Humanities.

The papers of author, educator, poet, and critic Donald Davie consist of his writings, published and unpublished, printed and in draft form, both manuscripts and typescripts, literary correspondence, personal and biographical data, materials pertaining to his academic career and other professional activities, works of his associates and colleagues, and writings by other twentieth century poets and authors, some of them Davie's students. The earliest materials are letters Davie wrote as a young man in the Royal Navy in 1942 and the latest are his obituaries written in 1995.