Irwin Shaw
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 (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades,[1] which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff
February 27, 1913
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
May 16, 1984 (aged 71)
Davos, Switzerland
- Playwright
- screenwriter
- novelist
Bury the Dead (1936)
The Young Lions (1948)
Rich Man, Poor Man (1969)
Beggarman, Thief (1977)
O. Henry Award (1944, 1945)
National Institute of Arts and
Letters Grant (1946)
Playboy Award (1964, 1970, 1979)
Honorary Doctorate, Brooklyn College
Marian Edwards (1916–1996)
Career[edit]
Drama[edit]
In the 1930s, Shaw wrote scripts for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps 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: