Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Explore the life, works, and lasting legacy of Irwin Shaw (1913–1984), the American novelist, playwright, and short story master behind The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man. Learn about his themes, influences, career arc, and memorable quotations.

Introduction

Irwin Shaw (born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff on February 27, 1913 – died May 16, 1984) was a major American literary figure whose work spanned short stories, novels, plays, and screenwriting.

His narratives often depicted individuals caught in moral, emotional, or historical conflict—soldiers in war, families navigating change, or ordinary people confronting life’s disappointments. His best-known works, The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man, Poor Man (1969), remain staples of American literature and popular culture.

While Shaw’s commercial success was significant (he sold millions of books), he also endured professional challenges—such as the Hollywood blacklist era—and lived much of his later life abroad. Yet his commitment to characterization, moral complexity, and economy of style has sustained his reputation.

Early Life and Family

Irwin Shaw was born in the Bronx, New York City, as Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff to Jewish immigrant parents, Rose and Will Shamforoff. Brooklyn, where he was raised and spent his youth.

As a teenager, Shaw adopted the surname Shaw (a shortened version of his birth name) before entering college. Brooklyn College, graduating with a B.A. in 1934.

Shaw had a younger brother, David Shaw, who later became a noted Hollywood writer and producer.

In 1939, he married Marian Edwards (daughter of silent film actor Snitz Edwards). They had a son, Adam Shaw (born in 1950).

Education, Early Work & Artistic Development

While Shaw’s formal education ended with his college degree, his intellectual and creative development was swift:

• After graduating from Brooklyn College, Shaw began writing radio scripts (for Dick Tracy, The Gumps, Studio One) in the mid-1930s.

• In 1936, he staged his first play, Bury the Dead, an antiwar drama about soldiers refusing burial—a work that gave him early literary recognition.

• He continued writing for radio, theatre, and magazines (such as The New Yorker, Esquire) in the late 1930s. His short stories began to appear and draw notice for their realism, pacing, and character insight.

Shaw’s early immersion in multiple narrative forms (radio, drama, short fiction) sharpened his ability to write with economy and precision. His storytelling voice combined emotional clarity with moral ambivalence, traits that would mark his later novels.

Career and Achievements

World War II & Influence on The Young Lions

During World War II, Shaw was initially drafted but later assigned to the US Army Signal Corps, working with the George Stevens film unit in Europe.

His wartime experiences informed his first major novel, The Young Lions (1948), which follows three soldiers—two Americans and one German—through the trials of war. The book was both a critical and commercial success and was adapted into a 1958 film starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.

McCarthyism, Blacklisting, and The Troubled Air

In 1951, Shaw published The Troubled Air, a novel about a radio producer pressured to fire suspected Communists during the McCarthy era. Red Channels (a right-wing publication) and placed on Hollywood’s blacklist.

As a result, he left the U.S. and spent about 25 years living in Europe—primarily in Paris and Switzerland—continuing to write novels, screenplays, and short stories.

Major Novels & Later Works

Over his career, Shaw wrote a substantial body of work. Some of his noteworthy novels include:

• Lucy Crown (1956)

• Two Weeks in Another Town (1960)

• Rich Man, Poor Man (1969) — which became a hugely popular television miniseries in 1976

• Evening in Byzantium (1973)

• Beggarman, Thief (1977) (a sequel to Rich Man, Poor Man)

• The Top of the Hill (1979), Bread Upon the Waters (1981), Acceptable Losses (1982)

In parallel, Shaw remained a formidable short story writer: his collections and magazine publications earned him high regard. Some of his well-known stories include “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” (1939)

Style, Themes & Impact

Shaw’s narrative style is often praised for its clarity, compactness, and emotional precision. His greatest strength lay in his characterization: ordinary people in difficult situations, often morally ambivalent.

His themes frequently engage war, family strife, social pressures, identity, disillusionment, and the cost of ambition. He maintained a realism that avoided melodrama, and avoided purely ideological framing—even when dealing with political or historical backdrops.

The Rich Man, Poor Man miniseries adaptation helped bring Shaw’s work to mass audiences, cementing his influence in both literature and television.

Legacy and Influence

• Shaw’s books have sold over 14 million copies worldwide.

• He is often cited as a writer who bridged literary merit and popular appeal—successfully writing both bestsellers and serious fiction.

• His short stories, especially those in The New Yorker, contributed to mid-20th century American literary life and are frequently anthologized.

• Despite the challenges of blacklisting, Shaw’s reputation recovered, and scholars today continue to study his moral subtleties and historical settings.

• Television adaptations (especially Rich Man, Poor Man) helped introduce his work to broader audiences and underscore his enduring relevance.

Personality and Talents

Irwin Shaw was known for his resilience, moral seriousness, and professional versatility. He could write for radio, stage, screen, and prose with equal facility.

He was deeply attuned to human frailty, desires, and conflicts. In interviews and in his Paris Review feature, he emphasized that characters must have autonomy and betray their creator at times—dialogue, action, interior life must stand on their own. (See The Art of Fiction No. 4, Irwin Shaw)

Shaw also exhibited a pragmatic view of the writer’s life. He emphasized the importance of perseverance, willingness to take risks, and of guarding one’s independence from market pressures. His quote “You must avoid giving hostages to fortune…” reflects that attitude.

Though he lived in Europe for many years, he remained connected to American literary and cultural currents, writing with both an insider’s and outsider’s perspective.

Famous Quotes of Irwin Shaw

Here are some notable quotations by Irwin Shaw, capturing his views on writing, life, and criticism:

1. “Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.”

2. “An absolutely necessary part of a writer’s equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.”

3. “You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an expensive wife, an expensive house, and a style of living that never lets you afford the time to take the chance to write what you wish.”

4. “All writers are the same — they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.”

5. “Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.”

6. “I never drink while I’m working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.”

7. “There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.”

These quotes reflect Shaw’s humility, his grappling with criticism, his recognition of life’s richness (and its limitations), and his honest attitude toward the discipline of writing.

Lessons from Irwin Shaw

From Shaw’s life and work, several lessons emerge for writers, readers, and creators:

1. Balance between art and audience
   Shaw showed that one can write for significant themes and reach broad readership. He did not sacrifice depth for popularity.

2. Stand firm in moral convictions
   Even during politically fraught times, he was willing to take risks (e.g. his petition and stance during McCarthyism). That cost him, but he maintained integrity.

3. Versatility strengthens craft
   His background in radio, drama, screenplay, and fiction enriched his storytelling tools. Exposure to multiple forms helps sharpen voice.

4. Protect creative freedom
   His warning about "giving hostages to fortune" is apt: material constraints, lifestyle demands, or external pressures can throttle one’s capacity to take risks or pursue difficult work.

5. Resilience in face of criticism
   Shaw stressed that writers must withstand external and internal critique—a recognition that creation and suffering often go hand in hand.

6. Observation matters
   His stories often depict the ordinary with nuance—people, places, conflicts that may seem small but carry weight. He looked broadly (the city, social change) and deeply (interiors of mind).

Conclusion

Irwin Shaw was a writer who inhabited many worlds: war and peace, America and Europe, mass markets and literary arenas. His best works combine narrative momentum, moral inquiry, and emotional truth. Though he faced exile and blacklisting, his voice persisted, and his characters continue to speak to readers decades later.