May Gibbs

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May Gibbs
Born 17 January 1877
Surrey, England
Died 27 November 1969
Occupation author, illustrator
Nationality English Australian
Writing period 1913 -
Genres Children's literature
Signature
Official website

Cecilia May Gibbs MBE (17 January 1877–27 November 1969) was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best-known for her gumnut babies (also known as "bush babies" or "bush fairies"), and the book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

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[edit] Biography

C May Gibbs was born in Cheam Fields, Surrey, in the United Kingdom,[1] to Herbert William Gibbs and Cecilia May Rogers, who were both talented artists. She was their second child, and as she was named after her mother, had the nickname "Mamie".[2] The family moved to South Australia to set up a farm in 1879 due to Herbert's failing eyesight, the result of a boyhood injury.[3] However, as May had caught the measles, her father and uncle went to Australia, leaving her mother in England to care for the children.[4] On 1 June 1881, the Gibbs brothers arrived in South Australia, and began to look for the land arranged for them by a relative of theirs. Over the next few months, the brothers became disillusioned with the land.[5] Cecilia discovered that she was pregnant again, and decided to make the voyage to Australia with her children. Despite her parents' dismay, Cecilia and the children left, and her third child, Ivan, was born at sea.[6]A drought in the area caused the family to move again, to Norwood.[7] In 1885, the family moved again to a farm property in Harvey, Western Australia.[8] When May was eight years old, she was given a pony by her father.

A replica of the Stirling Cottage, Harvey, which May Gibbs lived in.
A replica of the Stirling Cottage, Harvey, which May Gibbs lived in.[9]

She used Brownie to explore the bush, and she began to paint and write about the bush at this time.[10] This period of her childhood, and her imaginative interpretation of the bush, was formative in the development of the anthropmorphic bush setting found in her work.[11] When May was 10, the family moved to Perth,[12] and in 1889 May was published for the first time - in the Christmas edition of the W.A. Bulletin.[13] A number of return trips to England found her absent from that state, but in 1905 May was working for the Western Mail.[11] After finishing school, Gibbs spent seven years studying art in the UK. While overseas, she published her first book, About Us. In 1913 she returned to Australia, and took up residence in Neutral Bay, in Sydney, New South Wales.

A "Banksia Man" abducting Little Ragged Blossom, from Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
A "Banksia Man" abducting Little Ragged Blossom, from Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

1913 also marked the first public appearance of the gumnut babies, on the front cover of The Missing Button, by Ethel Turner, which Gibbs had illustrated. Gibbs' first book about the gumnut babies, appropriately entitled The Gumnut Babies, was published in 1916. It was soon followed, in 1918, by her most famous work, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Gibbs would go on to write many books on the theme of the gumnut babies. In addition to her work illustrating and writing, Gibbs also maintained two comic strips, Bib and Bub and Tiggy Touchwood.

Shortly after publishing Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Gibbs married B. James Ossoli Kelly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Walsh, p. 7
  2. ^ Walsh, p 10
  3. ^ Walsh, p 11
  4. ^ Walsh, p12
  5. ^ Walsh, p 13-14
  6. ^ Walsh, p. 15
  7. ^ Walsh, p17-18
  8. ^ Walsh, p.19
  9. ^ Harvey Visitor Centre - Stirling Cottage
  10. ^ Walsh, p 24-27
  11. ^ a b Seddon, George (1997). "Cuddlepie and other surrogates", Landprints: reflections on place and landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 113-118. ISBN 0-521-65999. 
  12. ^ Walsh, p29
  13. ^ Walsh, p 31

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

Sharkey, Chris and Pendal, Phillip (2000) May and Herbert Gibbs - The people, the Places South Perth, W.A. The May Gibbs Trust. ISBN 0-646-38811-8