Shaw Desmond

Life
1877-1960; b. Dungarvin, Co. Waterford; novelist and dramatist;lived in London; m. Karen Ewald, Norwegian writer; many writings include history, poetry and psychical research, and travel books such as The Windjammer: The Book of the Horn (1932); also The Drama of Sinn Féin (1923). IF2

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Works
  • Fru Danmark (1917).
  • The Danish People’s High School (1918).
  • Irland, [trans.] af Kai Friis-Møller (1918).
  • The Soul of Denmark (1918).
  • Democracy: A Novel (London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1919), v, 304pp.; Passion: A Human Story (1920).
  • Labour: the Giant with the Feet of Clay (1921).
  • Bodies and Souls (1922).
  • Citizenship (London: Hoddder & Stoughton 1922), vi., 428pp.; London Nights of Long Ago (1927), 28 ills.; The Drama of Sinn Féin (London: Collins & Sons 1923), xx, 424pp., pls.; Echo (1927).
  • Gods: A Novel (1921).
  • My Country: A Play in Four Acts (1921).
  • The Isle of Ghosts (1925).
  • Ragnarok (1926).
  • Tales of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis (London: G. Richards & H. Toulmin 1929), 319pp., wood-engravings by Ann Gillmore Carter.
  • The Love-Diary of a Boy (1930).
  • Stars and Stripes: Impressions of America (London: Hutchinson 1932), 302pp., port.
  • The Story of a Light Lady (London: T. Werner Laurie 1932; 1933), 312pp.
  • Windjammer: The Book of the Horn (London: Hutchinson 1932), 414pp., ill. [99 photos.].
  • London Pride (1936).
  • God -? (1936).
  • The Tale of a Coat [Burberry Ltd.] (1933).
  • We Do Not Die: on Spiritualism and Reincarnation (1934).
  • African Log (London: Hutchinson 1935), 282pp., ill., photographs & verse by the author; front. from a drawing by Alfred Palmer.
  • World-birth (London: Methuen 1938), xv, 404pp.
  • Chaos: A Novel (London: Hutchinson 1938), 484pp.
  • Reincarnation for Everyman (1939; 1950), 243pp.
  • After Sudden Death [2nd edn.] (1939).
  • Life and Foster Freeman (London: Hutchinson 1940), 518pp.
  • Spiritualism? (1941).
  • How You Live When You Die: A Guide to the Next World (1942; 1950).
  • You and God (1943).
  • You Can Speak with Your Dead (London & NY: Rider 1941; 1945), 103pp.
  • Incarnate Isis (1941) [fiction].
  • Black Dawn (London: Hutchinson 1944), 223pp.
  • Love fter Death (1944).
  • Jesus or Paul? (1945).
  • Paradise Row: A Novel of the Second World War (London: Hutchinson 1946), 272pp.
  • Nobody Has Ever Died (1946).
  • Spiritualism [by] Shaw Desmond [for] & C. E. M. Joad [against] (1946), ports.
  • The Story of Adam Verity (1947).
  • My Adventures in the Occult (1947).
  • The Edwardian Story (London: Rockliff [1949]), x, 356pp., ill. ports.
  • Nathaniel (1950).
  • Personality and Power (1950), pls.
  • The Edwardian Story (1950), pls. & ports.
  • Psychic Pitfalls (1950).
  • Pilgrim to Paradise: An Autobiography (London: Rider 1951), 272pp., port.
  • Love by the Dark Water (1952).
  • Irish Moon (London: Hutchinson 1953), 240pp.
  • Adam and Eve: a Guide to Sex and Marriage (1954).
  • God’s Englishman (1956).
  • Healing: Psychic and Divine (1956)
[All the foregoing listed in COPAC].

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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists Gods (1921); Isle of Ghosts (1925) [a hectic story of Irish Revolution, 1916]; Echo (1927) [Roman orgies under Nero]; Nathaniel (1950) [autobiog. of a child with West British and Protestant parents who experiments with various forms of religion and culture in London]; Love of Dark Water (1952) [a historical novel set on the Blackwater; ‘impossible brogue’ acc. Clarke]; Irish Moon (1953) [romantic tale of love, sea, and gallows set in 19th c. Waterford]; Clarke considers his works mostly romances in which authenticity is sacrificed to effect.

Eggeley Books (Cat. 44) lists Echo: Roman orgies under Nero (Duckworth 1927), viii, 9-287pp., a story of incarnation in Roman times, with some Irish content; also lists author-inscribed copy of Frederick Kaigh, Witchcraft and Magic of Africa, with foreword by Montague Summers (Richard Lesley 1947).

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