Scanlon left his work as a farmer to join the Australian Imperial Force in July 1915. He was honourably discharged with permanent disability in February 1917. Unable to return to farming, he survived on a small military pension and began to write about his experiences during World War One. Scanlon's Recollections of a Soldier's Life and Sundry Verse was self-published in Ballarat in 1918 and his collection of fictional letters, Gay Madamoiselles, Sly Digs and Wedding Bells was published soon after. Positive responses to these publications led Scanlon to publish a series of small booklets of 'Digger Stories' which were sold door-to-door by struggling returned servicemen.
Scanlon's credentials as a returned serviceman were asserted in the opening pages of each booklet and the character of his salesmen was also stressed to protect against the negative reactions of a public wary of such endeavours. Scanlon's stories sit comfortably between their stapled cardboard covers as examples of light romance, often set in the battlefields of France. The popularity of this genre or the persistence of his salesmen found a significant audience for the series. With titles printed in Sydney, Ballarat, Melbourne and Auckland, he was able to claim 100,000 readers for Much in Little by the mid-1920s. But, despite his success, Scanlon appears to have written nothing beyond this series. He died in December 1936 as a result of injuries received in a fight.
