David Oliver Doswell (June 26, 1979—) born David Oliver Doswell, II is a two time award-winning African-American Romantic Poet, essayist, playwright and actor. He is probably best known for authoring the 2006 book, Beloved, David, a collection of personal essays and poetry, a short dramedy play entitled The Gentleman he is rumored to executive produce for the stage in 2008, and the advice column His for Augusta news and entertainment journal, Metro Spirit. Doswell is widely considered one of Augusta's most compelling black poets, and a member of The Augusta Renaissance, The Columbia County Author's Guild, and served on the Metro Spirit's impartial think-tank, PIC (Political In-action Committee), in 2006. He has recently been cast for the role of Irvin (one of two caucasion producers who are wont to exploit African-American musicians in August Wilson's Tony Award-nominated play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) and received david& akachi Omni Media Group's first Elizabeth Prestige Award in April 2007. He is friends with owner of d&a, poet David Walker, and local author, Karin Gillespie.


His comments and letters have been published in the January 31st 2007 edition of The New York Times where he insists on the “working coalition” between political parties in the article: Senator Clinton: Compromise “Not a Dirty Word.”





Early Life




David Oliver Doswell, II was born the 26th of June 1979, in suburban Homestead, Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh to loving parents, David Oliver Doswell Senior and Lynn Verdell Jefferson. He was an “A” student throughout his grade school years, and took an early interest in physics, drawing, dancing and making friends.

His nickname was “Scooter,” a name his mother had given him as an infant after observing the way her son scooted across the floor instead of crawling. He is still known and often called by the name in his hometown of Homestead.

Doswell grew up during the crack epidemic of the late 1980's and early 90's, to which he would eventually take part in early in his childhood becoming a dealer.

After attending three high schools on account of bad behavior and family trouble (his mother was a drug addict), he dropped out of Munhall’s Steel Valley High School in the ninth grade in mid-semester, moved to the inner city of Pittsburgh, and subsequently began a perpetual cycle of drug dealing, theft and petty crime.

He embraced with impressionable charm the likes of the older dealers, pimps, and drug-addicts he associated himself with and took up a ruthless marijuana and alcohol addiction, which he claims he “lavishly supported expediting them.”

He was active in creating music in his spare time, first R&B, then rap, and sought career as a rap artist. He wrote and helped produce demo copies of his music with his close friend, the late Jason Coughman (Wolf). They produced three songs in 1997 and called themselves “Double Threat.”

He won the approval of those around him as a persuasive rapper and poet, and continued to write and “freestyle” lyrics based on the life in the streets he was experiencing first hand. His favorite rapper and quoted inspiration “is Nas.” He proclaims Wu-tang Clan to be greatest rap group of all time. He also claims Tupac Shakur as the best individual rapper of all time.

His desire to succeed and change the “outcome of his life” (he was jailed four times before the age of 20) motivated him to accept his older brother’s invitation to relocate to South Carolina where Damien Mayo, his brother, had just moved from the pricy Atlanta area and found a home. At this time, Doswell was earning an astronomical $30,000 a month dealing crack-cocaine in Pittsburgh’s inner city.




Relocation to Augusta, Georgia



Single without children, and with everything to gain, Doswell obliged and later moved from Mayo's abode to an historical apartment community in Downtown Augusta, Georgia just three miles away. He planned to “retire” from dealing and pursue, again, his career as a formidable rap artist under the name “Geez.”

His illegal hustle came to an abrupt stop in 1999 shortly before moving South with Mayo, and he began to work traditional jobs. Having no formal education, Doswell found work in odd jobs with small telemarketing companies and start-up restaurants. His resume, in describing himself as, “too creative for hourly work,” would accumulate over 11 jobs in under five years and over 20 addresses.

He would shortly cross paths in the first year with Margaret Elizabeth “Betty” Crenshaw, a minister and teacher of Christian doctrine, and an amiable Darrell Allen Gilliland, a credit card machine merchant and internet business owner.

“Ms. Betty,” as she was known, would care for him and offer him space in the ministry’s shelter department after he was fired from work and lost his apartment, which Doswell would reluctantly accept. By this time he was spending nights at the Salvation Army in Augusta when Crenshaw became acquainted with him.

In late August of 2000, Doswell moved into the ministry. His behavior was overtly described as “belligerent” and “the worst one I've ever had” by Crenshaw. This may have been because his early years concerning religion were inculcated with Islamic doctrine and a scathing indictment of Christianity, which he more than likely acquired from Mayo. Mayo was a practicing Muslim and advocate of the teachings of the 5% nation, a commonly perceived “offshoot” branch of Islam.

Doswell later fell in love with Crenshaw’s “authenticity,” calling her “the most loving and powerful woman I have ever known.” She too believed in him, some say with bold favoritism, later asserting him the titles “trophy” and “preacher.”




Conversion to Christianity




In 2001 Doswell would accept the Christian message at the His Community Church (then The Fleming Church of God) and inundate himself with the Christian religion. He began to read and easily memorize text and commentary, attending every service the church offered with surprising alacrity.

He claims to not have watched television, listen to radio or associate with “the world” for the three years he was there. “I didn’t do anything else…I just studied.”

He did, however, find much contact with his new friend Darrell Gilliland and his new business opportunity, a network marketing venture that took him across the country on business trips and weekly seminars, where studied sales and financial entrepreneurship from successful albeit older and more experienced members. Doswell was a member of Quixtar from 2001-2005, achieving only the first official "pin-level" (1000 points) in the course of his four tenure.

Doswell says he “was a Christian first and foremost and always made that clear,” sighting his commitment at the time to becoming an Evangelist, not a wealthy business person. He attended a total of 13 church services a week, including the services of neighboring church New Beginning Ministries in Jackson, South Carolina.

He sat in the front row, read sedulously and wrote papers, gave sermons at Crenshaw's outreach, L.O.T.S. Ministries, held study groups for men, and aided Mrs. Crenshaw in the administration of the church.

He continued to work odd jobs, attend church services, and educate himself in the internet marketing opportunity, in which he saw some success. By this time, Doswell had become extremely conservative politically. He supported George W. Bush's campaign in the 2004 election, and voted Republican in that race (though he now heavily supports Senator Barack Obama). He was outspoken, educated, enthusiastic and antagonizing. He resurrected the ambition he acquired dealing drugs, and set out to be financially “free” in direct marketing. He built a reputable sales organization around the 2000 boom of Quixtar, particularly under the leadership of Larry Winters' (Doswell's highly successful upline), in the Augusta area and became Gilliland’s largest business.



Discontentment




Doswell later became discontent in his routine, and with “the ineffective doctrine of the church versus what I was learning in the Bible,” left the church, and in late 2005, abruptly moved to Athens, Georgia with his best friend, Charles Tremblay, and new wife, Kelly.

Mayo died early that year from lung cancer, being David Oliver Doswell Sr.'s first son. He was Doswell's oldest and half-brother.

Tremblay, a Porter Fleming Award-winning poet and new impetus for Doswell’s dormant to lost proclivity for writing began to encourage him to read the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Tremblay would do so upon his noticing Doswell’s preference to the self-help books he was reading quoting Emerson, whom Doswell thought was a business sage. Doswell claims to have read the essay “Compensation,” and to easily identify with the author’s “style and conveyance.”

He began to forcefully, and even presumptuously, study philosophy and ethics on his own time, as well as the eighteenth and nineteenth century romantic poets. He even began to teach himself French, and quickly grew fond of the English poet, Lord Byron. He also began collecting in pdf form the writings of C.S. Lewis, Marcus Aurelius, Henry David Thoreau, Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Benjamin Franklin, and the playwright Oscar Wilde.



Beloved, David



Doswell returned to his first love apparently unscathed by his past experiences and dedicated his efforts to penning and publishing an assimilation of his own writings, which David Walker, former network marketing associate and Augusta State University student, would publish in 2006, under his new start up company, david& akachi Omni Media Group, LLC.

Doswell's first book, Beloved, David, is a smart selection of his personal essays, letters, poetry, and a play entitled The Gentleman, which was loosely inspired by his father's influence of fashion in his life, and his mother's later relationship with her friend, Dr. Wayne Ogilvie, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Doswell calls Ogilvie, The Gentleman.



Success and Criticism



Doswell’s book release party was sponsored by Walker’s new company and held at The Morris Museum of Art on Augusta, Georgia’s Riverwalk, and was a notable success. He was then rapidly commissioned to write for newspapers and appear on television and radio for the success of a well-written book (particularly the poetry), though he himself had no formal writing classes or education.

Critics argue of the glaring lack of editing in the book, and the strong religious underpinning in which Doswell seemed to pave every subject. Owner of Augusta’s Book Tavern, David Hutchinson, referred to as being written by "a novice philosopher;" to be, "intelligent but romanticized, and horribly edited.” Despite this, he won awards and recognition for the achievement, and sold hundreds of copies in the first two months. Hutchinson notes the essay Uganda “one of the best essays.”

Kamille Bostick of The Augusta Chronicle has written, “…Mr. Doswell is finding fresh and intellectual ways to voice his commentary and create his characters.”

Popular conservative commentator and author, Phil Kent, called Doswell’s The American Party (Doswell’s only political essay in which he importunately attempts to cement his theory on a single party government) “a great read!”

Today, Doswell is an men's advice columnist for Metro Spirit newspaper in Augusta, Georgia. He has had arbitrary comments published in The New York Times, was awarded by the City of Augusta The Certificate of Recognition by Mayor Pro-Tem Betty Beard and mayor David "Deke" Copenhaver for his essay Christmas in Bethlehem, and the Elizabeth Prestige Award from david& akachi Omni Media Group for Beloved, David in 2007. His second book, Poetry & Impressions, is a rough manuscript whose date is TBA. He is single and spends his time between Augusta, Georgia and West Hollywood, California.