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Having lost both his parents as an infant, Samuel Shellabarger was brought up by his paternal grandparents. His grandfather (also named Samuel) was a well-known Ohio lawyer, then later a US congressman and still later Ambassador to Portugal in the years during and after the Civil War. The younger Shellabarger's 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 the memories of seeing historical cities and sites would provide a rich storehouse of information for his later literary endeavors. He graduated from Princeton University in 1909 and spent an additional 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 Army during World War I, being posted to the Intelligence Service. In the meantime he 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, with the ability to speak and write fluently in French, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch and Spanish. He published both scholarly works and even a few mystery and romance novels. Since he did not want to mix his "legitimate" scholarly works with his more informal other works, he used pen names for the light literature. These 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 Pierre Bayard, revered in that country as a symbol of chivalric virtues. "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.

In 1938 he was appointed headmaster of the Columbus girls' school in Ohio, which occupied him for eight years. Though he had previously returned for a few years to teaching at Princeton, 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 took an innate pleasure in swashbuckler tales, and had enjoyed being on the fencing team as a student at Princeton. The study of Renaissance history was a particular interest of his. The two enjoyments merged when he started working on ideas for "swashbuckling" historical novels. In this he was moving into the same sphere of an already famous novelist, Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini's writing philosophy was also one of historical accuracy. His output was prodigious compared to what would be that of Shellabarger's, 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 lapsed into inaccuracies in detail and continuity problems.

Still, Warner Bros. had opted to buy movie rights to two of Sabatini's novels ("Captain Blood", filmed as Captain Blood (1935), and "The Sea Hawk"; brought to the screen--bearing little resemblance to the novel--as The Sea Hawk (1940) both starring "swashbuckler par excellance Errol Flynn), 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 Alexandre 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 March. Hollywood, in the person of 20th 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. However, the screenplay essentially covered the story up to the march on Mexico City--about halfway through the book. It would have been extremely difficult for the studio to get past 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. The subject, however, was simply too big for a two-hour movie. The film was released in 1947 and was a hit all the same.

Shellabarger spun out another yarn two years after the publication of "Captain from Castile", a story set in 16th-century Italy and dealing with the machinations of Cesare Borgia, Prince of Foxes. It was another best-seller, and Fox bought this one also. Since the story remained in Italy it was much easier to handle as a screenplay, which covers the totality of the book quite faithfully. It was a unique undertaking, inasmuch as Fox footed the bill to shoot on location in Italy and in the tiny principality of Andorra. However, because the film was getting to be so expensive, Fox decided to shoot in in black-and-white, a fact that does not detract from the film's splendid look. The movie was released in 1949 and was noted for its 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 was 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 by being about late 18th-century 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 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, it is still possible to find period editions of the books in used-book stores, due to the huge number of copies printed. 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.

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.

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

Taught English at Princeton between 1914-22. In 1938 was
appointed headmaster of the Columbus School for Girls in Columbus,
OH.

Trivia

Samuel Shellabarger

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