UNITED STATES AUTHOR · LARGE TYPE · FICTION
Gordon D. Shirreffs
Also known as: Gordon Donalds, Stewart Gordon
Gordon Donald Shirreffs was born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1935, he became a clerk for the Union Tank Car Company. In 1940 he left the company to serve in the army. He trained as an artillery officer with the 39th Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas, then went into combat overseas from 1940-45. In 1946, returning to the U.S. after the war, he resumed his position at the Union Tank Car Co. He also began taking night classes in writing at Northwestern University. He had decided he wanted to be a writer, and was writing Western and young adult stories after hours. In 1946, he opened Shirreffs Gadgets and Toys in Chicago, but in 1952 he closed the business in order to move to California to become a full-time writer. In 1967 he received a bachelor's degree in history from California State University, followed by a master's degree in 1973. Over the course of his career, he published over 150 short stories to periodicals, and over 75 novels. He also produced scripts for four movies and one television series. He continued writing right up to his death in 1996.
The first warm winds of spring gusted along Paris's narrow back streets and broad boulevards, calling winter-weary residents out into the night.
— from CAPTAIN CUTLASS, 2002
Most acclaimed
The Ghost Dancers
1986
A renegade band of scalping Mexican outlaws stirs up trouble when they are mistaken for Apaches, and Major Alec Kershaw allies himself with an Apache chieftain and the beautiful Anne Sinclair to protect the tribe.
Shadow valley
1989
In Great Sky Woman, "daringly epic in scope," (Publishers Weekly), Steven Barnes's Great Sky Woman unveiled the world of a prehistoric people in the shadow of modern-day Mount Kilimanjaro. Now, in Shadow Valley, the astounding sequel, we follow the Ibandi people's odyssey through a land where everything has changed-a land from whose ashes will grow the roots of civilization and the enduring truths of love, family, forgiveness, and faith.After the catastrophic eruption of Father Mountain, the Ibandi are divided, desperate, and afraid. Most have followed the only person in whom they still believe: young Sky Woman, who was on the great mountain when it exploded and who, along with Frog Hopping, returned to tell the tale. Nurtured by an elder whose searing visions have left her blind, Sky Woman nonetheless doubts her own visionary powers as she follows a path she can hardly discern-across savannah and parched plains-to find a valley of plenty for a people on the brink of collapse.But in fact, Sky Woman and Frog were not the only survivors of the mountain's explosion. Another man has emerged from the destruction, vengeance pulsing in his veins, to lead a separate group of Ibandi into a vicious and reckless act of war. Soon these two strands of survivors will meet, through chance, desperation, and sheer willpower. In a world in which every moment is lived on the edge between life and death, where animal and human predators can strike in an instant, where the gods themselves seem lost, and dreams entwine with reality, a people's destiny rushes toward them. The Ibandi must make a last, violent stand against complete destruction. In this hypnotic, thrilling, and beautiful novel, Steven Barnes explores relationships between friends and lovers, leaders and followers, strangers and allies. At once visceral and soaringly insightful, Shadow Valley is about who we are as human beings today as seen through the wondrous prism of our distant past.From the Hardcover edition.