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Four Complete Novels
Contains:
Rich Man, Poor Man
Beggerman, Thief
Evening in Byzantium
Nightwork
Rich Man, Poor Man
Beggerman, Thief
Evening in Byzantium
Nightwork
950 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 1988
About the author
Irwin Shaw
208 books435 followersShaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants. Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novels, The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man Poor Man (1970).
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw (died 2007), became a noted Hollywood producer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
Shaw began screenwriting in 1935 at the age of 21, and scripted for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps and Studio One.
Shaw's first play, Bury the Dead (1936) was an expressionist drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including Talk of the Town (a comedy about civil liberties), The Commandos Strike at Dawn (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and Easy Living (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards. They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction.
Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a warrant officer during World War II.He served with an Army documentary film unit. The Young Lions, Shaw's first novel, was published in 1949. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film.
Shaw's second novel, The Troubled Air, chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. He was among those who signed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Falsely accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including Desire Under the Elms (based on Eugene O'Neill's play) and Fire Down Below (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean).
While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably Lucy Crown (1956), Two Weeks in Another Town (1960), Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled Beggarman, Thief) and Evening in Byzantium (made into a 1978 TV movie). Rich Man, Poor Man was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries in 1976.
His novel Top of the Hill, about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, was made into a TV movie, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau, and Sonny Bono.
His last two novels were Bread Upon the Waters (1981) and Acceptable Losses (1982).
Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16, 1984, aged 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw (died 2007), became a noted Hollywood producer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
Shaw began screenwriting in 1935 at the age of 21, and scripted for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps and Studio One.
Shaw's first play, Bury the Dead (1936) was an expressionist drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including Talk of the Town (a comedy about civil liberties), The Commandos Strike at Dawn (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and Easy Living (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards. They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction.
Shaw enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a warrant officer during World War II.He served with an Army documentary film unit. The Young Lions, Shaw's first novel, was published in 1949. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film.
Shaw's second novel, The Troubled Air, chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. He was among those who signed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Falsely accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including Desire Under the Elms (based on Eugene O'Neill's play) and Fire Down Below (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean).
While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably Lucy Crown (1956), Two Weeks in Another Town (1960), Rich Man, Poor Man (1970) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled Beggarman, Thief) and Evening in Byzantium (made into a 1978 TV movie). Rich Man, Poor Man was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries in 1976.
His novel Top of the Hill, about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, was made into a TV movie, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau, and Sonny Bono.
His last two novels were Bread Upon the Waters (1981) and Acceptable Losses (1982).
Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16, 1984, aged 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 26, 2026
Review for Irwin Shaw Four complete novels,
Rich Man, Poor Man
Beggarman, Thief
Evening in Byzantium (fourth in the book)
Nightwork (third in the book)
Rich man poor man, is a great tale, lots going on, lots visualized, love it. Beggarman, Thief might even be better. I watched the miniseries as it came out in the 70’s and liked that a bit. But the book is much more complete, all the characters are there. I did not watch the second miniseries, but I imagine the book surpasses that anyway. I found myself rooting for good outcomes, and seeing the tragedy. It seems to balance out in the end. Beggarman Thief would get 4 stars on its own. Maybe 4.5 stars.
I liked that Night Work was a very tangled trip, I did not know which way the wind was blowing, good surprises. The only thing I could say negative is that the story, ended kind of suddenly. I am glad it all worked out, at least it appeared to all work out. Maybe that one has a sequel.
The last novel, Night in Byzantium, I don’t have anything nice to say about it. It shows us the actions of the idle rich. I don’t see the spark, the danger that the other three novels in this one book give me. It took forever to read, I was in the twilight zone, and thought I was re-reading chapters over and over again.
I can only rate the compendium once, so I will go 3. The second and third novels shine, first was ok, but that last one … Mark it zero Dude.
Rich Man, Poor Man
Beggarman, Thief
Evening in Byzantium (fourth in the book)
Nightwork (third in the book)
Rich man poor man, is a great tale, lots going on, lots visualized, love it. Beggarman, Thief might even be better. I watched the miniseries as it came out in the 70’s and liked that a bit. But the book is much more complete, all the characters are there. I did not watch the second miniseries, but I imagine the book surpasses that anyway. I found myself rooting for good outcomes, and seeing the tragedy. It seems to balance out in the end. Beggarman Thief would get 4 stars on its own. Maybe 4.5 stars.
I liked that Night Work was a very tangled trip, I did not know which way the wind was blowing, good surprises. The only thing I could say negative is that the story, ended kind of suddenly. I am glad it all worked out, at least it appeared to all work out. Maybe that one has a sequel.
The last novel, Night in Byzantium, I don’t have anything nice to say about it. It shows us the actions of the idle rich. I don’t see the spark, the danger that the other three novels in this one book give me. It took forever to read, I was in the twilight zone, and thought I was re-reading chapters over and over again.
I can only rate the compendium once, so I will go 3. The second and third novels shine, first was ok, but that last one … Mark it zero Dude.
Displaying 1 of 1 review