Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Sunday 22 January 1984, page 1


Alan Marshall dies

in nursing home

MELBOURNE: Author

Alan Marshall died yesterday at the nursing home in the bayside suburb of East Brighton where he had been a resident for the past two

years.

The 82-year-old writer, who was crippled by polio from the age of six, had been ill for some time at the Hurlington Nursing Home with a weak heart.

His writings capturcd the spirit of the Aussie battler and ap-propriately his last work, a collec-tion of his early short stories, was titled 'Alan Marshall's Battlers'.

In the 40 years since his first story was published, Mr Marshall wrote 24 books and countless short stories. The best known was

'1 Can Jump Puddles', which told of his experiences as a handi-capped child and how he man-aged to bccome a proficient horse

rider. The novel was later made into an ABC television series.

He was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to liter-ature and had a rare honour be-stowed on him by the Soviet Union, the Order of Friendship. He was also honoured at a recent reception in Washington for his

contribution to literature about the disabled. He was among 22 authors who were recognised at the function at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library.

Mr Marshall's wife died some years ago. He is survived by two daughters.

A lifelong friend and fellow author, Juda Watten, said yester-day that Mr Marshall had made an outstanding contribution to the literary history of Australia. He said that even while he was ill Mr Marshall had not lost touch with the literary world.

Alan Marshall