"Dal Stivens was born Dallas George Stivens in Blayney, New South Wales in 1911. He worked in a variety of jobs including jounalist, bank clerk, public servant and court reporter. He served in the Army Education Service during the period 1943-44, then the Department of Information from 1944-49, and then press official at Australia House, London during 1949-50. After this stint in London he resigned to take up full-time writing. Stivens' writing career can be said to start during the time when he was seconded to the office of the Labor Minister Arthur Calwell when he wrote How Many Australians Tomorrow?, and influential immigration text. He then graduated to writing short stories for Lilliput, The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement and John O'London's Weekly. In the early 1960s Stivens, along with Walter Stone and Jill Helyer, founded the Australian Society of Authors, of which Stivens was the first president. After the publication of his last book, The Incredible Egg in 1974 he spent the bulk of his time following his other love, painting. Stivens' novel A Horse of Air won the Miles Franklin Award in 1970 and in 1981 he was honoured with the Patrick White Award for his services to Australian literature." (http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors...) See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal\_Stivens