author
Roscoe R. Rau
Known for a practical training manual on furniture sales, this early-1940s writer approached retail as both a craft and a business. His work blends product knowledge, customer understanding, and a clear belief that selling well starts with knowing the home.
1 Audiobook
Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program
by Roscoe R. Rau, Walter F. Shaw
About the author
Roscoe R. Rau is best known as the coauthor of Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program, a vocational guide published in 1941 with Walter F. Shaw. The book was prepared for the home-furnishings trade and presents selling as a skilled profession built on product knowledge, customer service, and steady self-improvement.
The title page identifies him as Executive Vice President and Secretary of the National Retail Furniture Association, which helps explain the book’s confident, industry-focused tone. Rather than writing as a literary author, he seems to have written as a trade expert: someone interested in helping salespeople understand furniture, interiors, and the practical realities of retail work.
Reliable biographical detail beyond that is limited in the sources I could confirm. What does come through clearly is his role in shaping a hands-on training book that reflects how the furniture business wanted to teach selling in the early 20th century.