The 2008 Travelling Treasures program features three rare editions of May Gibbs' earliest children's books: Gum Blossom Babies (1916-17); Little Obelia and further adventures of Ragged Blossom, Snugglepot & Cuddlepie (1921); and the little-known picture-book About Us (1912).
Cecilia May Gibbs was born on 17 January 1877 at Sydenham, Kent, England, and migrated to Australia with her family in 1881. Educated in Perth, she studied art in England, returning to Western Australia in 1904. She wrote and illustrated for The Western Mail before travelling again to England in 1909 to develop her writing and illustrating career. Her first book was About Us (1912), a children’s fantasy about London chimneys, printed in England.
She returned to Australia due to ill health, settling in Sydney. Her series on gumnut babies, first published in 1916 and inspired by the Australian bush, soon became the first of many of her books to become Australian classics. Gibbs went on to write and illustrate much-loved comic strips, a weekly column and a range of books including Nuttybub and Nittersing (1923) and Two Little Gumnuts (1929).
In 1955 May Gibbs was appointed MBE. She died in 1969, leaving her estate to UNICEF, and copyrights to the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children and the Spastic Centre of New South Wales. Her gumnut babies, including the characters Little Obelia, Ragged Blossom, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, continue to delight generations of Australian children.
Illustration
Detail from the cover of May Gibbs' Gum Blossom Babies, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, c1917 |
