Steele Rudd
| Steele Rudd | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Arthur Hoey Davis 14 November 1868 Drayton, Queensland, Australia |
| Died | 11 October 1935 (aged 66) Brisbane, Australia |
| Resting place | Toowong Cemetery |
| Pen name | Steele Rudd |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Notable works | On Our Selection, Rudd's Magazine |
| Notable awards | King George V Silver Jubilee Medal |
| Spouse | Violet Christina Davis |
| Partner | Winifred Hamilton, Beatrice Sharp |
Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis (14 November 1868 – 11 October 1935) an Australian author, from Queensland best known for his novel On Our Selection.
Davis was born at Drayton near Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Thomas Davis (1828-1904), a blacksmith from Abernant in south Wales who arrived to Australia in 1847 due to a five-year conviction for petty theft, and Mary, née Green (1835-1893) an Irishwoman from Galway who was driven to emigrate by the potato famine. The boy was the eighth child and fifth son in a family of 13 children. The father later on took up a selection at Emu Creek, and there Davis was educated at the local school. He left school before he was 12 and worked at odd jobs on a station, and at 15 years of age became a junior stockrider on a station on the Darling Downs. When he was 18 he was appointed a junior clerk in the office of the curator of intestate estates at Brisbane.
In 1889, Davis was transferred to the sheriff's office and in his spare time took up rowing and when he began writing a column on rowing in a weekly paper and needed a pseudonym he adopted "Steele Rudder", the first name from the English essayist Richard Steele, the second chosen because he wanted to bring into his name some part of a boat. Later it was shortened to "Steele Rudd". During his time as under sheriff, Davis had to give the signal at the hanging of Patrick Kenniff which left him nervous and irritable for months after the event.
Towards the end of 1895 Davis sent a sketch based on his father's experience 'Starting the selection' to The Bulletin. The sketch was published on 14 December 1895. This afterwards became the first chapter of On Our Selection when it was published in 1899. Encouraged by J. F. Archibald, Davis continued the series of sketches, 26 of which were included in the volume. Within four years 20,000 copies had been printed. It afterwards appeared in numerous cheap editions and by 1940 the number of copies sold had reached 250,000. The stories have also been the basis of a play and several films.
In 1903 appeared Our New Selection and in the same year Davis, who had reached the position of under-sheriff, retired from the public service. In January 1904, Davis brought out Rudd's Magazine, a monthly magazine published at 6d. a copy, which continued for nearly four years. It was issued first from Brisbane and was afterwards transferred to Sydney. It had a much longer life than most Australian magazines, but there was not then a large enough public in Australia to enable a cheap popular magazine to be successful. It was revived under various names between 1923 and 1930.
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