John K. Ewers

John Keith Ewers (13 June 1904 – 9 March 1978) was a novelist, poet, schoolteacher and short story writer from Western Australia. He was the second son Ernest Ewers, orchardist, and his wife Annie Eliza, née Gray. When he was 6 his mother died. He was educated at James Street Intermediate and Perth Modern schools, and Claremont Teachers' College. He began writing while he was a young teacher in the West. The Australian Journal published (1924) his first short story, under the nom-de-plume, 'J. K. Waterjugs', a play on the meaning of ewer. He wrote early on in his career in Our Rural Magazine, and Walkabout magazine

He was involved in the Western Australian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and was its President. He campaigned to preserve “Tom Collins” House (the home of Joseph Furphy, author of Such is Life), in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne.

He also co-authored, with Deirdre Ellis Weston, grammar textbooks English for High Schools Perth, W.A.: Carrolls, Passport to Understanding, Melbourne : Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1971, and Passport to Adventure, Melbourne : Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1973 which were used widely throughout Western Australian schools during the 1950s to 1970s.

Works

• Money street : a novel (London, 1933)
• The story of the pipe-line : being an account of the construction of the Coolgardie water scheme with some chapters on the early history of Western Australia (Perth, 1935)
• Fire on the Wind (London, 1935, Hodder & Stoughton)
• Tell the people! : an explanation of the little-known writings of Joseph Furphy (Tom Collins) in the light of their value for Australia to-day (Sydney, 1943)
• Tales from the Dead Heart (Sydney, 1944)
• Men Against the Earth (Melbourne, 1946)
• Perth Boys' School, 1847-1947 : the story of the first hundred years of a great school, with a background of the history of education in Western Australia (Perth, 1947)
• For Heroes to Live In (Melbourne, 1948)
• Harvest and Other Stories (Sydney, 1949)
• With the Sun on My Back (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1953)
• Who Rides on the River? (Sydney, 1956)
• Bruce Rock (1959)
• The western gateway : a history of Fremantle (Nedlands, 1971.2nd rev. ed.)
• I came naked : a selection of verse 1970-1975 (Black Rock, Vic. 1976.)
• Long enough for a joke : an autobiography (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1983)