David Derek Stacton (born Arthur Lionel Kingsley Evans, May 27, 1923 – January 19, 1968) was an American novelist, historian and poet. Biography Stacton was born in San Francisco. In author profiles, however, he claimed to have been born April 25, 1925, in Minden, Nevada (several of his books are set in Nevada). Stacton attended Stanford University from 1941–43. He served in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector, and wrote a letter as “David Stacton” decrying the compliant American masses to Dwight Macdonald’s Politics in 1945. He legally changed his name to David Derek Stacton on September 3, 1946. He changed his name to disassociate himself from his father, and because he believed the surname was unique to him in the United States (as a child he had been known to friends as “Lyonel”). He attended San Francisco State College from 1947–48, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in January 1951. He lived in Europe from 1951–1954, 1960–1962, and 1964–1965. Most of his books as David Stacton were originally published in England. Stacton wrote under the pseudonyms Carse Boyd, Bud Clifton, David Dereksen and David West. He also ghosted Living Religions Of The World a 1956 work accredited to Frederic Spiegelberg. Stacton may have lied about being married, and recollections by friends and people who personally met him strongly indicate that he was gay and unafraid of being flamboyant in person. One memoir records Stacton's penchant for drag. The few author descriptions in contemporary reviews were much taken by his wearing of cowboy boots. In 1965-1966 he taught at Washington and Lee College. He died January 19, 1968, in Fredensborg, Denmark. His death was reported as being from a stroke. Stacton had suffered from epilepsy since a child. Overview David Stacton's earliest published works were poems, often betraying the influence of T.S. Eliot, which were published in American little magazines. They were collected in 1953. David Stacton began his career as a novelist as a writer of moody California-based novels, became moderately well known as a writer of short, concentrated historical and biographical novels, and then ended his career as a writer of lengthy histories. His historical novels are distinctive for covering many disparate periods and historical figures and were popular with a coterie of critics but they never reached a wide audience. His novels usually focus on a couple of characters who are often highly