Louis Kaye


Louis Kaye was the pseudonym of Noel Wilson Norman, an Australian novelist and short story writer. He also published short stories under the names Grant Doyle Cooper and James Linnel.
He was born in Claremont, Tasmania to a well-connected Lindisfarne family but was more interested in an adventurous outback life than one of business and politics. From 1917 he was to make frequent forays into the Western Australian bush to experience first-hand life in the bush and deserts of outback Australia. His experience of aboriginal life was augmented by reading the works of anthropologist Baldwin Spencer.
He was already a successful contributor of short stories to overseas magazines in 1931 when he wrote his first novel, Tybal Men, set in a WA sheep station. He is regarded as giving a realistic depiction of bush life and aboriginal culture, though criticised for emulating the "violent excesses of the American cowboy novel".
His brother Don Norman was a writer and historian.

Short stories

A partial list of Kaye's short stories includes:

Novels

  • Tybal Men pub. Wright & Brown, London 1931
  • Trail of Plunder pub. Wright & Brown, London 1931
  • Desert Herbage pub. Wright & Brown, London 1932
  • The End of the Trail pub. Wright & Brown, London 1933
  • The Desert Boss pub. Wright & Brown, London 1934
  • Tightened Belts pub. Wright & Brown, London 1934
  • Pathways of Free Men pub. Wright & Brown, London 1935
  • The Dark Gods pub. Wright & Brown, London 1935
  • The Lonely Land pub. Wright & Brown, London 1935
  • Black Wilderness pub. Wright & Brown, London 1936
  • Darkened Camps London : Wright & Brown, 1936
  • Vanished Legion pub. Wright & Brown, London 1937
  • Tracks of Levask pub. Wright & Brown, London 1938