Means Davis

Augusta Tucker Townsend, who published some books as Means Davis, was an American author born in 1904 and died in 1999. Reliable book and library sources identify Means Davis as her pen name, and they connect her most famous work with Baltimore and Johns Hopkins medical life.

Her best-known novel, Miss Susie Slagle’s, became a New York Times bestseller after its 1939 publication. Johns Hopkins University Press says the book spent about half a year on the national bestseller lists, went through many hardcover printings, and was later adapted into a Hollywood film.

She also wrote mystery fiction, including The Hospital Murders. A Johns Hopkins archival recording from 1970 shows that Townsend remained closely linked with the world that inspired her fiction, taking part in a recorded conversation about the history of Johns Hopkins Hospital buildings.