Biography for
Samuel Shellabarger More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

18 May 1888, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Date of Death

21 March 1954, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (heart attack)

Mini Biography

Having lost both his parents as an infant, Samuel Shellabarger was brought up by his paternal grandparents. His grandfather (also Samuel) was a well known Ohio lawyer, then US congressman, and later minister to Portugal in the years around and after the Civil War. The younger Shellabarger life was something of a bridge between the early US - via the upbringing of his grandparents - and that of the fast emerging changes of the first half of the 20th century. He considered this perspective as central to later historical insights as a scholar and writer.

He was privileged to see much of Europe while still a youth. And, again, memories of seeing historical cities and sites would provide a rich storehouse of information for his later literary endeavors. He attended and graduated from Princeton (1909) and spent an addition year at the University of Munich. He returned to the US and while working as an instructor at Princeton (1914-17) attended Harvard for graduate studies and received his PhD in 1917. He then joined the US Intelligence Service during World War I. In the meantime, Shellabarger had continued traveling to Europe-married and started a family. He was an assistant professor of English at Princeton until 1921 and then decided that he wanted to pursue writing. The next year he moved the family to Lausanne, Switzerland - a five year stay that was followed by an additional two years in England and France. He would revisit Europe many times to come.

Shellabarger was well equipped, being fluent in speech and written word in French, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish. He published both scholarly works and an early penchant for a few mystery and romance novels. Since he did not want to mix his scholarly legitimacy with the latter output, he used pen names for the light literature. These latter began to appear once he was back in the US. He completed the manuscript of research done in Europe for a biography of the famous early 16th century French knight, revered there as a symbol of chivalric virtues, Pierre Bayard. The Chevalier Bayard, A Study in Fading Chivalry was published in 1928 (to this day in remains the only definitive treatment of Bayard in English). After another European sojourn he came home once again in 1931 and returned to writing and publishing romantic genera through 1939. He also wrote a good deal of magazine fiction.

He decided (1938) to become headmaster of the Columbus girls' school in Ohio which occupied him for 8 years. Though he had returned for a few years to teaching at Princeton previously, he considered his headmaster time as more fulfilling as an educational experience than his university teaching. It was during his Ohio stay that Shellabarger began to entertain the idea of writing historical fiction. Though he was well honed in the basics of such writing, he knew that a serious meshing of history with fictional characters carried the weight of factual research and integration to give the work realism. He had an innate pleasure in swashbuckler tales and had enjoyed being on the fencing team as a student at Princeton. And the study of Renaissance history was a particular interest. The two enjoyments merged when he started working on ideas for swashbuckler historical novels. In this he was moving into the same sphere of an already famous novelist, Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini's author philosophy was also one of historical accuracy. His output was prodigious compared to what would be that of Shellabarger. But his subjects were of uneven interest, sometimes hampered with heavy-handed historical constraints, and his style could drag with extraneous, stilted dialog. Additionally, he sometimes fell into detail inaccuracies and discontinuities.

Still Warner Bros. had opted to buy filming rights to two of his novels (Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, the latter's screen version bears no resemblance to the novel!) in the 1930s. On the contrary, Shellabarger's style of writing was at once refreshing for its concise, richly painted, and realistic dialog; detailed narrative; and most importantly, a story that was always compelling. His work had the enthusiasm of Alexander Dumas without the early 19th century verbosity of style. When Shellabarger finished his first effort, Captain from Castile, in early 1945 it sold so briskly that it was in its 12th printing by the March timeframe. Twentieth Century Fox came knocking and bought the screen rights for $100,000. The story used the backdrop of the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century. But the screenplay essentially covered the story up to the march on Mexico City-about half way through the book. It would have been the devil to get passed the censors with some aspects of the book, particularly graphic scenes of Aztec human sacrifice. The remainder of the novel continued a sweeping story of return to Europe and all things coming to rights in the end. But it was simply too big for a 2 hour movie. The film appeared in 1947 and was a hit all the same.

Shellabarger spun out another yarn two years later (1947) of the period a decade earlier in the 16th century of Italy and dealing with the machinations of Cesare Borgia, Prince of Foxes. It was another best seller, and Fox Studios bought this one also. Since the story remained in Italy, it was much easier to handle as a screenplay, and the latter covers the full of the book quite faithfully. It was a unique undertaking in as much as Fox foot the bill to shoot on location in Italy in the tiny sovereignty of Andorra. But with so much expense, it was shot in black and white, a fact that does not detract from the splendid look. The movie appeared in 1949 and was unique for the high production values. Shellabarger wrote another Renaissance novel, this dealing with France during the wars of France I with Emperor Charles V. This was The King's Chevalier which was published in 1950 and another success, but it was not optioned for filming.

Shallebarger finished his next novel, Lord Vanity in 1953. This story departed from the previous trilogy being about the late-18th century of Italy and the New World. It was evidently inspired by another scholarly work Lord Chesterfield's World (1935). It was not made into a film either. Nonetheless, Shellabarger had amassed a total 1.5 million dollars for his late-in-life historical novels. A continued output was in progress, but what had truly been Shellabager's golden years in more ways than one were cut short by his passing in 1954. Two other novels were published posthumously: The Token (1955) and Tolbecken (1956) but remain obscure. The Renaissance trilogy has continued in popularity. Though all have been reprinted in recent editions, it is still very likely to still find period editions of all in a used bookstore for a few dollars-the legacy of the huge printings from which ample copies still remain. The quality of his work is validated in the Samuel Shellabarger Memorial Prize in Creative Writing awarded each year by Princeton to a senior judged most qualified.

IMDb Mini Biography By: William McPeak

Spouse

Vivian Georgia Lovegrove Borg

(1915 - 21 March 1954) (his death) 4 children

Trivia

American biographer and author of swashbuckling, romantic historical novels. He sometimes used the pseudonyms John Esteven and Peter Loring.

Taught English at Princeton between 1914 and 1922. In 1938, was appointed headmaster of the Columbus School for Girls in Columbus, Ohio.

His wife was a native of Sweden. They had two sons and two daughters; their first son, Robert, died in infancy, the second son, John Eric, was killed in World War II.

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