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Cecilia May Gibbs was born in Surrey, England on 17 January 1877. Four years later, she and her parents settled in Perth, Western Australia.
May drew and painted with her parents as she grew up. She studied art in Western Australia and in London in 1904, taught by the artist Augustus John.
She returned to Australia at age 24, and using the name 'Blob', drew political cartoons for a magazine.
In 1905, May began writing children's stories set in the Australian bush. One was called Minnie and Wog, Their Adventures in Australia.
In 1906 she took the work she had done to England, seeking a publisher. The publishing companies were not interested in stories about the Australian bush, but one publisher, Harrap, employed her to illustrate books about English history.
May rewrote the story of Minnie and Wog, changing the setting to the rooftops of London, and the book was published in England and the United States renamed About Us.
In 1913, May Gibbs settled in Sydney and her career blossomed. She did cover designs for a number of novels and began contributing to the Education Department's reading books for school children.
During the First World War, she produced posters, booklets and calendars, all of Australian birds and animals, and all designed to boost the homesick Australian soldiers fighting overseas.
She began making books for little children, but instead of the fairies and pixies popular at the time, she made Australian ones, based on the plants and animals she knew. These made her famous, and paved the way for the success of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, published in 1918.
In 1919, May Gibbs married Bertram James Ossoli, and they built a house at Neutral Bay in Sydney, calling it Nutcote. May's books continued to be very successful through the 1920s. She began a comic strip, called Bib and Bub, in 1925. It ran in various newspapers until 1967, and by then she was 90 years old.
By the 1940s people's tastes had changed and May Gibbs' books did not do well. However, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie remained popular. In 1955 May Gibbs was awarded an MBE for her contribution to children's literature in Australia.
She died on 27 November 1969, leaving everything she owned to benefit physically disabled children. Her manuscripts and drawings can be seen in the Mitchell Library in Sydney.
You can read more about May Gibbs and her house 'Nutcote' here http://www.maygibbs.com.au/
Acknowledge this page in your bibliography like this:
Thomas, Ron. & Sydenham, Shirley. May Gibbs [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2009)
August 2009 copyright © kidcyber [2009]