author
Walter F. Shaw
Best known today for practical mid-20th-century guides on selling and small business, this author wrote in a clear, no-nonsense style aimed at helping people build useful skills. His surviving books suggest a strong interest in everyday work, from home furnishings retail to starting a business of one’s own.
1 Audiobook
Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program
by Roscoe R. Rau, Walter F. Shaw
About the author
Walter F. Shaw is a somewhat elusive figure in the historical record, but his published work shows him as a practical writer focused on vocational learning and business know-how. Catalog and library records connect him with Selling Home Furnishings: A Training Program, written with Roscoe R. Rau, and How to Start Your Own Business, written with Edith W. Kay.
His books are rooted in the world of applied education rather than literary celebrity. Selling Home Furnishings was created as a training manual for people working in furniture retail, emphasizing sales technique, product knowledge, and understanding customers. Another listed work, Paint Power and How to Teach It, coauthored with Lonore Kent, points in the same direction: clear instruction meant to be useful on the job.
Because biographical information about Shaw himself is hard to confirm, the most reliable picture comes from the books he left behind. They present him as a writer interested in practical competence, business confidence, and teaching readers how to succeed in everyday commercial life.