Steele Rudd

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Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis, an Australian author. Davis was born at Drayton near Toowoomba, Queensland, on 14 November 1868.

He had an interest in rowing and when he began writing a column on rowing in a weekly paper and needed a pseudonym he adopted "Steele Rudd", the first name from the English essayist, the second was a shortening of rudder; he wanted to bring into his name some part of a boat.

His reputation was established by his short stories of country life. His writings include:

On Our Selection 1899 (sold over 250,000 copies)
Our New Selection 1903
Rudd's Magazine 1904 - 1908 (monthly magazine)
Back at Our Selection 1906
Dad in Politics 1908
From Selection to City 1909
Grandpa's Selection 1916
The Romance of Runnibede 1927
Green Grey Homestead 1934

The 1920 movie "On Our Selection" and 1932-1952 radio series "Dad and Dave" helped turn the characters into Australian cultural icons.

Rudd's shingle hut can still be seen at the town of Nobby Queensland. There is a statue of Steele Rudd at the Speakers' Corner in King George Square in Brisbane.

There are copper statues of Dad, Dave, Mum and Mabel, the central characters from the Steele Rudd novels, at Gundagai (currently in temp storage till re-erected.)

Rudd died at Brisbane on 11 October 1935. Davis was twice married and was survived by three sons and a daughter by the first marriage. In addition to the volumes mentioned others will be found listed in Miller's Australian Literature.

[edit] Quotation

In his 1908 book, Dad in Politics, Davis satirises political life in the opening sentence:

Smith, the member for our district, died one day, and we forgot all about him the next. Not that a politician is ever remembered much after he dies, but Smith had been a blind, bigoted, old Tory, and was better dead. Politicians are mostly better dead, so far as other people and their country is concerned …