Sumner Locke Elliott was born in Sydney in 1917, the son of the writer Sumner Locke and the freelance journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died soon after his birth and he was raised by several aunts. This resulted in a fierce custody battle which was resolved when he was about ten. After leaving school he became an actor and a writer with the Independent Theatre, which produced seven of his plays. During the Second World War Elliott served with the Australian Army. In 1948 he left Australia for the United States, where he worked as a televison writer for both CBS and NBC. He took United States citizenship in 1955. Elliott did not return to Australia for any length of stay until 1974. He is the author of the short story “Radio Days” (1993). His novels include “Careful, He Might Hear You” (1963), “Some Doves and Pythons” (1966), “Edens Lost” (1969), “The Man Who Got Away” (1972), “Going” (1975), “Water Under the Bridge” (1977), “Rusty Bugles” (1980), “Signs of Life” (1981), “About Tilly Beamis” (1985), “Waiting for Childhood” (1987), and “Fairyland” (1990). His plays include INTERVAL (1939), THE COW JUMPED OVER THE MOON (1939), THE LITTLE SHEEP RUN FAST (1940), GOODBYE TO THE MUSIC (1942), YOUR OBEDIENT SERVANT (1943), THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS (1946), RUSTY BUGLES (1948), BUY ME BLUE RIBBONS (1951), and JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC (1953). “Careful, He Might Hear You” won the Miles Franklin Award in 1963, and Elliott was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award in 1977. Sumner Locke Elliott died in 1991.
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