Stivens, Dal (1911-1997), was an Australian novelist and short-story writer. His The Tramp and Other Stories (1936) is a collection of brief, vigorous stories written with blunt realism. In The Gambling Ghost and Other Stories (1953) and Ironbark Bill (1955), Stivens emerged as the teller of tall tales—improbably funny stories written about equally impossible outback characters—and as a writer of delightfully witty fables. His Selected Stories, 1936-1968 was published in 1970. Stivens’s novels include Jimmy Brockett: Portrait of a Notable Australian (1951); The Wide Arch (1958); Three Persons Make a Tiger (1968), a satirical comedy; and The Bushranger (1979). His novel A Horse of Air (1970) won the Miles Franklin Award. In 1981, Stivens received the Patrick White Award for a body of work that contributed to Australian literature. An anthology, The Portable Dal Stivens, was published in 1984.
Dallas George Stivens was born on Dec. 31, 1911, in Blayney, New South Wales. He died on June 15, 1997.
