Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: ''

The Young Lions ''The Young Lions'' (1948) is a novel by Irwin Shaw about three soldiers in World War II. Plot Christian Diestl is at first a sympathetic Austrian drawn to Nazism by despair for his future but willing to sacrifice Jews if necessary. Noah Acke ...

'' (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and

Montgomery Clift Edward Montgomery Clift (; October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''. He is best remembered ...

, and '' Rich Man, Poor Man'' (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring

Peter Strauss Peter Lawrence Strauss (born February 20, 1947) is an American television and film actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s. He is five-time Golden Globe Awards nominee. Early life Strauss was born in C ...

Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...

, and

Susan Blakely Susan Blakely is an American actress and model. She is best known for her leading role in the 1976 ABC miniseries '' Rich Man, Poor Man'', for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. Blakely also ha ...

Personal life

Shaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigrants from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw, became a noted Hollywood producer and writer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1934. He began screenwriting in 1935 at age 21. In 1939 he married actress and producer Marian Edwards, daughter of silent film actor

Snitz Edwards Snitz Edwards (born Edward Neumann, 1 January 1868 – 1 May 1937) was a stage and character actor of the early years of the silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialog ...

. The couple divorced in 1967, remarrying two years before Irwin's death in 1982. During World War II, he was approached by

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of ...

to join his film unit. Unable to be commissioned as an officer due to his age and 1-A draft status, Shaw decided to enter the Regular Army. Later, the Army, noting his background, sent him to

George Stevens George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Obituary '' Variety'', March 12, 1975, page 79. Films he produced were nominated for the Academy Award for ...

' film unit. He was one of four writers attached to Stevens' command, in which he became a

warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mos ...

. After the war, he returned to his career as a writer. Shaw died in

Davos, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Bergün/Bravuogn, Klosters-Serneus, Langwies, S-chanf, Susch , twintowns = } Davos (, ; or ; rm, ; archaic it, Tavate) is an Alpine resort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos R ...

on May 16, 1984, at age 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Career

Drama

In the 1930s, Shaw wrote scripts for several radio shows, including '' Dick Tracy'', ''

The Gumps ''The Gumps'' is a comic strip about a middle-class family. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959. According to a 1937 issue of ''Life'', ''The Gumps'' was i ...

'' and ''Studio One''. He recaptured this period of his life in his short story "Main Currents of American Thought," about a hack radio writer grinding out one script after another while calculating the number of words equal to the rent money: Shaw's first play, '' Bury the Dead'' (

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

) was an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. His play '' Quiet City'', directed by Elia Kazan and with incidental music by

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

, closed after two Sunday performances. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including '' The Talk of the Town'' (a comedy about civil liberties), ''The Commandos Strike at Dawn'' (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and '' Easy Living'' (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards (daughter of well-known screen actor

). They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction. Shaw summered at the

Pine Brook Country Club Pine Brook Country Club is a private lake association in Nichols, Connecticut, a village within the Town of Trumbull. It began when Benjamin Plotkin purchased Pinewood Lake and the surrounding countryside on Mischa Hill. Plotkin built an audito ...

, located in the countryside of

Nichols, Connecticut Nichols, a historic village in southeastern Trumbull in Fairfield County, Connecticut, is named after the family who maintained a large farm in its center for almost 300 years. The Nichols Farms Historic District, which encompasses part of t ...

, which became the 1936 summer home of the

Group Theatre (New York) The Group Theatre was a theater collective based in New York City and formed in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. It was intended as a base for the kind of theatre they and their colleagues believed in— a forceful, n ...

, whose roster included Elia Kazan,

Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.

Harry Morgan Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg; April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011) was an American actor and director whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both ''December Bride'' (1954–1959 ...

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

, Frances Farmer,

Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In Ca ...

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...

and

Lee J. Cobb Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectabl ...

Novels and Miniseries

'', Shaw's first novel, was published in 1948. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film. Shaw was not happy with the film, feeling it soft-pedaled some of the serious issues from his book, but it did well at the box office. Shaw's second novel, ''

The Troubled Air ''The Troubled Air'' is a novel by Irwin Shaw first published in 1951. It is a story of the radio industry (at a time when shows were produced live) set in 1950, during the blacklisting of McCarthyism. Plot summary The plot centers around Clem ...

'', chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. He was among those who signed a petition asking the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

to review the

John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. He was the first pres ...

and

Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), ''Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) ...

convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the

House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

. Accused of being a communist by the

Red Channels ''Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' was an anti-Communist document published in the United States at the start of the 1950s. Issued by the right-wing journal ''Counterattack'' on June 22, 1950, the pamphle ...

publication, Shaw was placed on the

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including ''

Desire Under the Elms ''Desire Under the Elms'' is a 1924 play written by Eugene O'Neill. Like ''Mourning Becomes Electra'', ''Desire Under the Elms'' signifies an attempt by O'Neill to adapt plot elements and themes of Greek tragedy to a rural New England setting. ...

'' (based on

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

's play) and ''Fire Down Below'' (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean). While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably ''

Lucy Crown ''Lucy Crown'' is a novel by American author Irwin Shaw. First published in 1956, it was Shaw's third novel, following The Young Lions and The Troubled Air. Principal Characters * Lucy Crown, wife and mother * Oliver Crown, her husband * Anth ...

'' (

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

), ''Two Weeks in Another Town'' (

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

), '' Rich Man, Poor Man'' (

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled ''

Beggarman, Thief ''Beggarman, Thief'' is a 1977 novel written by Irwin Shaw. It was a sequel to his 1970 bestseller '' Rich Man, Poor Man'' and focuses on the surviving Jordache siblings, Gretchen and Rudolph; their deceased brother Thomas' teenage son Wesley Jor ...

'') and ''Evening in Byzantium'' (made into a 1978 TV movie). ''Rich Man, Poor Man'' was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries with six 2-hour episodes shown for February 1 to March 15, 1976. The series ranked third in the seasonal Nielsens and garnered twenty-three Emmy nominations. A further adaptation, which Shaw had very little to do with, ''Rich Man, Poor Man--Book II'' was aired from September 21, 1976, to March 8, 1977. This was not as successful as the first.RICH MAN, POOR MAN: U.S. Miniseries
Museum of Broadcast Communications. There was a third sequel ''Beggar Man, Thief'' in 1978, which belatedly included the Jordache's sister Gretchen who had been a prominent character in the original book.Rich Man, Poor Man
Nostagia Central. "A further sequel, Beggar Man, Thief (1978) introduced the Jordaches' previously unmentioned sister, Gretchen."
''New York Times'', W. G. Rogers, Oct. 4, 1970. His novel ''The Top of the Hill'' (1979) was made into a TV movie about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, starring

Wayne Rogers William Wayne McMillan Rogers III (April 7, 1933 – December 31, 2015) was an American actor, known for playing the role of Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre in the CBS television series ''M*A*S*H'' and as Dr. Charley Michaels on '' House Calls ...

Adrienne Barbeau Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American actress, singer and the author of three books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical '' Grease'', and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter o ...

, and

Sonny Bono Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republica ...

. His last two novels were ''Bread Upon the Waters'' (1981) and ''Acceptable Losses'' (1982).

Short stories

Shaw was highly regarded as a short story author, contributing to '' Collier's'', ''Esquire'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'', ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'', and other magazines; and 63 of his best stories were collected in ''Short Stories: Five Decades'' (Delacorte, 1978), reprinted in 2000 as a 784-page University of Chicago Press paperback. Among his noted short stories are: "Sailor Off The Bremen", "The Eighty-Yard Run", and "Tip On A Dead Jockey". Three of his stories ("The Girls in Their Summer Dresses", "The Monument", "The Man Who Married a French Wife") were dramatized for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...

''. Telecast on June 1, 1981. This production was released on DVD in 2002 by Kultur Video. In 1950, Shaw wrote a book on Israel with photos by

Robert Capa Robert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) was a Hungarian-American war photographer and photojournalist as well as the companion and professional partner of photographer Gerda Taro. He is considered by some t ...

named ''Report on Israel.''

Awards

During his lifetime Shaw won a number of awards, including two O. Henry Awards, a

National Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

grant, and three Playboy Awards.

Works

Novels

* ''

'' (1948) * ''

'' (1951) * ''

'' (1956) * ''Two Weeks in Another Town'' (1960) * ''Voices of a Summer Day'' (1965) * '' Rich Man, Poor Man'' (1969/1970) (Portions of this novel first appeared in ''Playboy'' in a slightly different form.) * ''Evening in Byzantium'' (1973) * ''Night Work'' (1975) * ''

'' (1977) * ''The Top of the Hill'' (1979) * ''Bread Upon the Waters'' (1981) * ''Acceptable Losses'' (1982)

Short-story collections

* ''Sailor off the Bremen and other Stories'' (1939) * ''Welcome to the City, and other Stories'' (1942) * ''Act of Faith, and other stories'' (1946) * ''The Girls in Their Summer Dresses'' * ''Mixed Company. Collected Short Stories'' (1950) * ''Tip on a Dead Jockey, and other stories'' (1957) * ''Selected Short Stories'' (1961) * ''Love on a Dark Street, and other stories'' (1965) * ''Retreat and other stories'' (1970) * ''Whispers in Bedlam'' (1972) * ''God Was Here, But He Left Early'' (1973) * ''Short Stories: Five Decades'' (1978)

Nonfiction

* ''Report on Israel'' (1950, with

) * ''In the Company of Dolphins'' (1964) * ''Paris! Paris! (1976)''

Plays

* '' Bury the Dead,'' New York,

Ethel Barrymore Theatre The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theater at 241 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1928, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles ...

, April 1936. * ''Siege, New York,''

Longacre Theatre The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Henry B. Herts and was named for Longacre Square, now known a ...

, December 1937. * ''The Gentle People,'' New York,

Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 an ...

, January 1939. * '' Quiet City'' New York, Belasco Theatre, March 1939. * ''Retreat to Pleasure,'' New York, Belasco Theatre, 1940. * ''Sons and Soldiers,'' New York, Morosco Theatre, May 1943. * '' The Assassin'','' New York, National Theatre, October 1945. * ''The Survivors,'' (with

Peter Viertel Peter Viertel (16 November 1920 – 4 November 2007) was an author and screenwriter. Biography Viertel was born to Jewish parents in Dresden, Germany, the writer and actress Salka Viertel and the writer Berthold Viertel. In 1928, his parents mov ...

) New York,

Playhouse Theatre The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt i ...

, January 1948. * ''Children From Their Games,'' New York, Morosco Theatre, April 1963. * ''A Choice of Wars, Glasgow,'' Scotland, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, 1967.

Screenplays

* '' The Big Game'', RKO, 1936. * ''

Commandos Strike at Dawn ''Commandos Strike at Dawn'' is a 1942 war film directed by John Farrow and written by Irwin Shaw from a short story entitled "The Commandos" by C. S. Forester that appeared in ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in June 1942. Filmed in Canada, it starred ...

'', Columbia, 1942. * '' The Hard Way'', Warner Bros., 1942. * '' The Talk of the Town'', RKO, 1942. * ''

Take One False Step ''Take One False Step'' is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by Chester Erskine and starring William Powell and Shelley Winters. Plot Married college professor Andrew Gentling reluctantly agrees to have a drink with Catherine Sykes, ...

'', Universal, 1949. * '' Easy Living'', RKO, 1949. * '' I Want You'', RKO, 1951. * '' Act of Love'', United Artists, 1953. * ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'', Paramount, 1954. * '' Fire Down Below'', Columbia, 1957. * ''

'', Paramount, 1958. * ''

This Angry Age ''This Angry Age'' (also known as ''The Sea Wall'', ''Barrage contre le Pacifique'' and ''La diga sul Pacifico'') is a 1957 Italian-American drama film directed by René Clément, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, and starring Anthony Perkins and S ...

'', Columbia, 1958. * '' The Big Gamble'', Fox, 1961. * ''

In the French Style ''In the French Style'' is a 1963 French-American romance film released by Columbia Pictures directed by Robert Parrish and stars Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker and Philippe Forquet. It was based on a short story by Irwin Shaw. Plot The young Ameri ...

'', Columbia, 1963. * ''Survival'', United Film, 1968.

References

External links

Brooklyn College Archives
* * * Retrieved on 2008-02-07 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Irwin American people of Russian-Jewish descent 1913 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists United States Army personnel of World War II American male screenwriters Hollywood blacklist Writers from Brooklyn People from the Bronx Jewish American novelists Jewish American dramatists and playwrights Irwin Shaw 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) O. Henry Award winners American war correspondents Screenwriters from New York (state) Brooklyn College alumni 20th-century American screenwriters United States Army soldiers Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in Switzerland 20th-century American Jews