Rudd, Steele (1868-1935), was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis, an Australian author known for his humorous rural characters. His many books typically portray life in the Darling Downs area of southern Queensland. Davis wrote many humorous short stories about struggling selectors (small farmers) in Australia. His own family were poor selectors and had to work hard to make a living out of the land. His books include the autobiographical On Our Selection (1899), his first book, followed by Our New Selection (1903), and Sandy’s Selection (1904). The two main comic characters, Dad and Dave, are among the most famous in Australian literature. For over a century, beginning in 1912, their adventures reached a wider public through a series of plays, motion pictures, and a long-running radio serial. Davis also wrote plays and novels, but his reputation rests on more than 20 volumes of stories about rustic life.
Davis was born on Nov. 14, 1868, in Drayton, near Toowoomba, Queensland. He worked as a horse breaker, stockman, and drover before moving to Brisbane to work as a clerk. There, he began to write poetry and sketches for local periodicals. The first of his stories about selectors appeared in The Bulletin in 1895. Davis founded Steele Rudd’s Magazine in 1903. In the magazine, he published many writers who later became famous in Australian literature. He died on Oct. 11, 1935. See also Australian literature (Prose).
