Charles Herbert Shaw (10 August 1900 – 1 August 1955) was an Australian journalist and novelist.

Life and career

Shaw was born in

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. His family moved to north-western Victoria when he was a boy, but his parents died when he was in his early teens, and he had to fend for himself, becoming a rural labourer. During the Depression years he held a variety of jobs in the countryside and his interest in writing led him to work at a newspaper in

Forbes, New South Wales Forbes is a town in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the Newell Highway between Parkes, New South Wales, Parkes and West Wyalong, New South Wales, West Wyalong. At the , Forbes h ...

. Shaw had several stories published by '' The Bulletin'' and eventually was employed by the magazine as a rural editor.Rutledge, M
Shaw, Charles Herbert (1900 - 1955)
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online He had two collections of

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

short stories, ''Outback Occupations'' (1943) and ''A Sheaf of Shorts'' (1944), and one volume of verse ''The Warrumbungle Mare'' (1943) published as well as two

detective stories A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

''The Green Token'' (1943) and ''Treasure of the Hills'' (1944). Shaw decided after several rejections that no one outside Australia had an interest in stories about the outback. He wrote a novel, '' Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'', published in 1952, about a

U.S. Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

and a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

on a Japanese-held

Pacific island Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

. It was adapted for the screen as a 1957 film by

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

and

John Lee Mahin John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902, Evanston, Illinois – April 18, 1984, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable a ...

. The film was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium in 1957. In the 1950s Shaw wrote a series of four detective novels about Dennis Delaney under the

nom de plume A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of "Bant Singer", named after his favourite car, a

Singer Bantam The Singer Bantam is a car which was produced by Singer from 1936 to 1939. It was the first model from Singer to have an all-steel body, by Pressed Steel Company. It was offered as a new economy model at the 1935 Motor Show in London, replacing ...

. *''You're Wrong, Delaney'' (1953) *''Don't Slip, Delaney'' (1954) *''Have Patience, Delaney'' (1954) *''Your Move, Delaney'' (1956) He died of a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on 1 August 1955. He left a widow and two sons.

References

External links

* * Australian Literary Resource http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=Asy 1900 births 1955 deaths Australian male novelists Australian crime writers 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian male writers Writers from Melbourne {{Australia-writer-stub