Steele Rudd

Steele Rudd was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis (14 November 1868 – 11 October 1935) an Australian author, best known for his short story collection On Our Selection.

In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Rudd was named one of the Q150 Icons for his role in Queensland literature.

Early life

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 Great Famine.

In 1889, Davis moved to the sheriff's office and he began writing a column on rowing in a weekly paper. He needed a pseudonym and 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.

Writing career

His reputation was established by his short stories of country life. The 1920 movie On Our Selection and 1932–1952 radio series Dad and Dave helped turn the characters into Australian cultural icons.

Davis, however, detested his struggling but admirable family being made into comic yokels, and had nothing to do with the radio program. There is no character called 'Mabel' attached to Dave anywhere in the entire Rudd canon of fiction: Dave briefly had a girlfriend called Fanny in one story, and he eventually married a girl called Lily. Davis had a profound respect for the pioneering Australian woman, and he was particularly incensed by the use of 'Mum' when referring to Mrs Rudd. "'It is 'Mother', 'Mother', Mother!' he would shout, flushed in the face."