Stephen C. Shaw, retired director of administrative rules for the state of New Hampshire, recently wrote a screenplay inspired by two Pottsville icons, Henry Clay and John O'Hara.
But instead of pitching it to Hollywood agents, Shaw decided to release "The Empty Box: A Screenplay" in book form earlier this month through Parisburg Publishing, Pottsville. Copies are available at Amazon.com.
"O'Hara's novels are dialogue-driven, and a screenplay is almost all dialogue. So I thought it was a good format for this project," Shaw, 69, said Tuesday.
In 2005, Shaw was living in Harrisburg. When visiting Pottsville, he became fascinated by the monuments to Clay and O'Hara. He moved to Pottsville in September.
A U.S. congressman and statesman, Clay was born April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Va., according to biography.com. He was a 19th century U.S. senator who helped to spur the Industrial Revolution. When Clay died June 29, 1852, a committee of local officials decided to pay tribute to him with the monument. The 15-foot tall statue sits in Pottsville on a more than 40-foot tall iron column of Grecian Doric architecture.
O'Hara was born in Pottsville in January 1905. His novels include "Appointment in Samarra" and "Butterfield 8." He also penned screenplays, plays and short story collections. He died in April 1970 in Princeton, N.J., and was interred in Princeton Cemetery. In October 2002, a life-like bronze statue of O'Hara by sculptor James J. Ponter, Pitman, N.J., was placed at 115 S. Centre St. The Pottsville Bicentennial Committee raised the funds for its creation.
"I think Henry Clay and John O'Hara have something in common. Henry Clay tried to be president several times. He would have made a great president. And O'Hara wanted the Nobel Prize. A lot of his friends won it. He never did. So he had a chip on his shoulder, 'I should have won the Nobel Prize.' It haunted him his whole life. And that's really the key to my screenplay. I studied Buddhism and, as I understand it, the chief thing that makes you unhappy or sorrowful is desire. And if you can overcome desire, you will have a happier life," Shaw said.
"The Empty Box" is a fictitious story about the desire for unattainable goals, Shaw said.
The story's protagonist is a novelist critical of class structure who sought recognition and a place in the limelight, a character similar to O'Hara, Shaw said.
O'Hara wrote about Pottsville but called it "Gibbsville." In his script, Shaw called Pottsville "Clayville," after Henry Clay.
Born in Bronx, N.Y., Jan. 12, 1944, Shaw graduated from Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., in 1962 and earned a degree in English literature from City College of New York in 1967. He retired at 50 and has been writing, painting, playing slide guitar and traveling ever since.
He taught classes on the poetry of the blues in Prague and Cambridge, England. He recently produced and hosted a TV show in Concord, N.H., "Without Music Life Would Be A Mistake."
To date, he's written six books.
"I've been writing for 20 years. I've tried many genres. I've written close to 2,000 poems now and they were actually practice for the larger pieces I'd write, short stories and plays. I'm working on several novels now," Shaw said.
"I've always been fascinated by writers and my whole life I've related to things by writing about them. I can write myself out of depression. I think O'Hara did, too," Shaw said.
For more information on Shaw's books, visit www.parisburg.com.