author
Pierre Coalfleet
1893–1960
A Canadian-born novelist writing under the name Pierre Coalfleet, he published a small run of books in the 1920s and is best remembered for vivid, imaginative fiction with a literary edge. His work also reached beyond novels into adaptations and translations of European plays.
1 Audiobook
Hare and Tortoise
by Pierre Coalfleet
About the author
Born Frank Cyril Shaw Davison in Hantsport, Nova Scotia, on February 3, 1893, he wrote fiction under the pen name Pierre Coalfleet. He studied at McGill University, earning a B.A. in 1913, and went on to build a literary career that connected Canadian roots with a wider international outlook.
Under the Coalfleet name, he published four novels between 1921 and 1927. Among them, Hare and Tortoise remains the title most often noted today, and his fiction is commonly associated with lively storytelling and settings shaped by Western Canada.
Davison also worked on adaptations and translations of European plays, often in collaboration with Rita Matthias. He died on March 31, 1960, leaving behind a brief but distinctive body of work that still attracts curious readers of early twentieth-century fiction.