David Stacton (David Derek Stacton) Biography

American novelist, born in San Francisco, educated at the University of California. Stacton spent much of his writing career abroad. His early novels, of which the most significant are Dolores (1954), A Ride on a Tiger (1954), and The Self-Enchanted (1956), were first published in Britain and only latterly in the USA. Many of his better-known writings are historical novels, notably Remember Me (1957), a novel about King Ludwig II of Bavaria; A Dancer in Darkness (1960), about the Duchess of Malfi; and Sir William (1963), which fictionally reimagines the famous affair between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. Despite his proclivity for the historical, Stacton's style gravitates towards the gothic and melodramatic, though his characterizations are often powerfully psychological.