Australian Scholarly Editions Centre Projects (ASEC)

The Growth of Australian Children's Book Publishing
1890-1940

Marcie Muir

Despite a healthy scepticism towards publishers' claims, scanty records and sometimes almost no records at all, it seems undeniable that Cole's Funny Picture Book was undoubtedly the most popular children's book published in Australia in the fifty years under discussion. The last edition printed by Coles own printing department that I know of is the 58th edition, undated, but prior to June 1929, when Coles closed down. It claims that 630 000 copies had been sold. Cole's daughter, Linda, continued to publish the Funny Picture Books, and her son, Cole Turnley has been very successful keeping the books before the public and selling successive editions and variations right up until the present day.

While there are many myths and exaggerations about Coles Book Arcade it was always more than a circus run by a showman. Cole gathered around him a group of bookmen who genuinely loved books and who had a good knowledge of literature, and with its huge stock of new overseas books and a large secondhand department, it was a gathering place for booklovers of all sorts. Few Australian publishers in the early years could make their own publications pay; Cole's was the great remainder house, and like many other remainder merchants, he made a fortune. He was said to be able to sell anything if it were cheap enough. The firm frequently bought up stocks of English publications which they bound up with their own title pages and covers-in the case of children's story books with a rainbow cover and a new title such as 'Cole's Rainbow (or Empire, or Great &c) Story Book'. Few of these books had any Australian content and cannot be considered Australian publications. Cole bought from the respective publishers the stocks of Ida Rentoul's first two little books, Mollie's Bunyip and Mollie's Staircase, in which she collaborated with her mother, then her sister; they bound them together under the new title of Mollie's Adventures, and re-issued them in time for Christmas 1907. This edition has now become even rarer than the original books!

Like many successful nineteenth century men Cole was self-educated. His eye was always caught by some pithy saying or appealing drawing, and he acquired the habit of collecting such snippets which became the basis for his books. He knew instinctively the success of the book depended on crowding details and varied ideas one on top of the other, with humorous anecdotes, riddles, rhymes and funny drawings. This obviously appealed to popular taste of the day, but the survival to the present of the Funny Picture Books seems remarkable, and due to Cole's name, the rainbow design, and skilful promotion.

Until the time of the First World War publishing in this country was still only occasional and tentative. Cassell were the first British publisher to establish a branch in Australia, followed swiftly by Ward Lock, though some other English publishers were represented here by an agent. Neither of these firms entered the local publishing scene, although Ward Lock scored a winner with the remarkable achievement of Ethel Turner, eight of whose titles were published in England by the firm between 1894 and 1900. Undoubtedly the great success of these books owed much to the position already attained in the juvenile market by the publisher, as well as the local representative's encouragement and understanding of his gifted young author. Turner's friend and schooldays rival, Louise Mack, did not enjoy the same success with her books, though both Teens and Girls Together were well written, published in the 1890s by Angus and Robertson in handsome editions, and illustrated by eminent local artists. Mack did not have the hardworking professionalism of Turner, and cultivating an artistic pose, was a prickly author for a publisher to handle. Angus and Robertson must have felt they could hardly go wrong publishing her books while the success of Seven Little Australians and other Turner titles could be seen daily in their own bookshop. But Mack's two stories were their first children's books, and indeed their first full length novels; they did not yet have the publishing experience, nor access to the overseas market that Ward Lock had. Distribution in Britain could not be handled from Sydney, so Teens and Girls Together were sent to Andrew Melrose, a minor British publisher, to market there. He was not remarkably successful though the books went into several editions. Later, when Angus and Robertson established their own printing department in the 1920s the books sold well, though it was too late for Mack who had parted with the copyright in order to pay for her fare overseas.

Soon after Ethel Pedley's Dot and the Kangaroo was published in England in 1899 by an obscure English publisher Angus & Robertson acquired the rights, publishing the first Australian edition in 1906, and ever after must have congratulated themselves as edition followed edition, for the book has been seldom out of print during the past ninety years.

George Robertson of Melbourne, certainly the major publisher and bookseller in the Australian colonial period, died in 1898, and although his firm had published many books, few were for children. When the company was re-organized after his death, their publishing revived under the talented Edward Vidler, and they published some important children's books, including the three songbooks of the Rentoul sisters.

The initiative slowly moved to Sydney and Angus and Robertson who began to see the possibilities of children's books which could be adapted for school readers providing Australian children with stories about their own land. In 1910 they published three small collections of Amy Mack's nature stories for schools. There was also a one volume edition for the general reader , and a later one with coloured illustrations by Lionel Lindsay. By this time also the work of May Gibbs had begun to appear on covers of the Sydney Mail and elsewhere. May had settled in Sydney, and was looking for work, and would have shown Angus and Robertson the attractive books Harrap the English publisher had produced with illustrations she had done. Naturally they would have seen the possibilities of designing some of their own books in a similar attractive format, and in 1914 they issued four story books roughly matching the Harrap books. These four, Dot and the Kangaroo, Amy Mack's Scribbling Sue, and Bushland Stories, and Constance Mackness's Gem of the Flat, uniformly produced in demy octavo with enticing coloured inlays, two by May Gibbs, and with decorative gilt lettering on the front covers together made a memorable impression, and booksellers and the general public must have felt there were now some Australian children's books of a quality to compare with the handsome English books filling the bookshops.

Very soon the first of May Gibbs's gumnut booklets made their appearance, and although they were only considered trifles, their sales for Angus and Robertson were remarkable for those days, each title selling upwards of 20, 000 copies. For sheer artistic skill and fine book design they were unsurpassed by the artist herself, and seldom, if ever, by her publisher. Familiarity with the debased modern reprints has made us blind to their quality, but anyone who looks carefully at the early Gibbs books finds them full of subtle charm expressing the instinct of a born artist. Angus and Robertson did not appreciate the work she offered. While George Robertson went to endless pains to bring out Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding superbly at twenty one shillings, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was published at five shillings, on inferior paper, and only May's watchfulness and nagging ensured that it was such an artistic success. By an extraordinary coincidence two of Australia's great children's books were published within six weeks of each other for Christmas in 1918. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was an instant success; the 5000 copies were soon sold out and were followed by a reprint in March and another the following January. The Magic Pudding , more lavishly produced on art paper to do justice to Lindsay's drawings, though it delighted the critics (and still delights us today!) proved too expensive, as Lindsay predicted it would, and a year or two later was remaindered for seven shillings and sixpence. Although a commercial flop at first, it ultimately proved a lasting cultural and financial triumph-an undoubted highlight in Australian children's books. Time has vindicated both books which have survived endless tasteless and unsympathetic productions by publishers blind to anything but the sales figures.

Curiously enough, there were three great children's books which arose about this time, the third, though chronologically the first, was Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's Elves and Fairies , published by Lothians in 1916. Grenbry Outhwaite was the force behind this. He felt sure of the quality of his wife's work, The Art of Frederick McCubbin, showed him what Lothians could achieve, and he urged the publishers to give Ida's book the same lavish treatment. The Outhwaites were well known in Melbourne, Grenbry was prepared to back the book financially as well as with the full force of his personality and influence, and Lothian was not hard to persuade that it would be a triumph. It launched Ida magnificently on her career, and has retained its prestige as one of our great children's books. Three guineas then was indeed a high price to pay, but this book was more than just a book for a child. It was admired and loved by many adults who felt it was something to treasure, and to assuage any feelings of guilt, those who bought it knew they were making a patriotic gesture in aid of the Red Cross!

Although for a totally different market the five little Willie Winkie Zoo Books issued in 1918 by Whitcombe and Tombs also attracted Outhwaite admirers. These uniform booklets were decorated with charming Outhwaite illustrations in fresh colours on the covers, and with line drawings inside. The animal stories were written by Annie Osborn, 'Cinderella' of the children's pages of the Leader . Three of the booklets continued to sell for years in various editions of Whitcombe's readers, but without the coloured covers of the originals, and each achieved the astonishing sales figures of 46 000 to 49 000 copies. Whitcombe and Tombs had by now firmly established themselves in Australia, having opened their Melbourne branch in 1903, twenty years after first beginning publishing in New Zealand. Ian McLaren, in his invaluable bibliography, pointed out that from 1908 they 'fostered the low-priced mass produced children's supplementary readers' and became, after Angus and Robertson the second largest publisher of Australian children's books. These readers now appear dreary, but they depended on their cheapness which made them so widely accessible, especially in school libraries which in those days were so pitifully underfunded. Despite their appearance not all Whitcombe books had dull contents, two in fact were stories by Mary Grant Bruce.

In the twenties as the population increased, children's book publishing in Australia developed along different lines. In Britain children's publishing was organized merchandising. Advertisements in Australian newspapers in the 1920s in the weeks before Christmas give some idea of the aggressive mass marketing by English publishers. For example, one department store, not a bookseller, advertised twenty-seven different overseas children's annuals in one large advertisement. All the same, some local publishing managed to succeed. Robertson and Mullens, the firm which had evolved from the amalgamation of George Robertson and Melville and Mullen published a new edition of The Little Black Princess. in 1922. Mrs Gunn had bought back the rights from her first publisher, and in 1909 Hodder and Stoughton had published a revised edition. Then, in 1914 George Robertson had published a school edition, but by the 1920s it was time to awaken a fresh interest in the book in Australia. Robertson and Mullen's move proved so successful that by 1945 they had sold 320,000 copies. From the first they brought out the book in cloth and also a cheap paperback school edition, which continued to be set year after year, indeed, decade after decade, accounting for its very high sales figures.

English boys' weekly papers such as Magnet and Gem sold widely in Australia, as well as the annuals such as the Boys Own Annual, Chums, and others each Christmas. The Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne attempted to counter these with a weekly Australian paper, Pals, edited by Charles Barrett, and each year from 1920-1926 it too brought out an annual. Its quality was no higher than its overseas rivals, not surprisingly considering the meagre talent it had to draw on, but its natural history features had more to offer Australian readers. Another new development was the comic strip in children's pages of newspapers, and as their popularity became established annual collections of some of the comic strips began to be published. The most famous of these were the Ginger Meggs strips by J. C. Bancks which appeared on the news-stands first as the Sunbeams Annuals, at two shillings each in time for Christmas from 1924 until 1959. The annuals were well-printed, paper-covered booklets distributed through news agents, and were extremely popular from the beginning. In 1931 the Australian Bookseller claimed that the first eight Sunbeams annuals had sold over 500 000 copies.

In August 1925 May Gibbs's first Bib and Bub strip was published by the Sydney Sun . It was immediately successful, and at £5 per strip was well paid for that time, though far less than Bancks received for Ginger Meggs. Angus and Robertson collected the Bib and Bub strips reprinting them in book form but carelessly and crudely which naturally offended the artist. Although these books were successful between 1925 and 1929 they were never reprinted. The onset of the depression in 1930 greatly affected the circulation and payment of the comic strips, but Bib and Bub continued for almost forty years. May was obliged to flog her wits to turn these out week after week as she became dependent on them for a livelihood, until they were finally discontinued in her ninetieth year in 1967.

Angus and Robertson were publishing more and more children's story books in the 1920s after setting up their own printing press which they needed to keep supplied with work. Their standard novel for children was published in a series known as the 'Bell Bird' series, cloth bound with black and white illustrations. Of the thirty or so titles listed almost half were the novels of the popular Canadian author, L. M. Montgomery, beginning with Anne of Green Gables. George Robertson had bought the Australian rights of these novels which continued for years to be bestsellers. Smaller and cheaper than the 'Bell Bird' series was the 'Platypus' series, squat little books, uniformly bound in a square red casing with bright pictorial dustjackets. The author must have been paid a small royalty for each reprint. They were a bone of contention with Louise Mack who was powerless to prevent her early novels being reprinted up to eight times in the 1920s when school stories had become so popular. But having sold her copyrights outright she had only herself to blame for receiving no payment while her sister Amy went on receiving some royalties. Once again, half the children's titles in the Platypus series were those of books by L. M. Montgomery. Very successful in each too were the four Mary Grant Bruce titles they had secured. Dot and the Kangaroo was reprinted in both the series, an edition of 1929 claiming it to be the 82nd thousand suggesting that sales must have been approaching 100,000 by 1940. Angus and Robertson did not neglect the market for school readers, and in 1929 brought out 'The Gumnut Readers' in which almost twenty little books, mostly drawn from the other series were included.

Allans the music publishers became more active during the 1930s although they had been publishing an occasional childrens' song book since early in the century. By the 1940s they were one of the most prolific of Australian children's publishers. Ida Rentoul Outhwaite illustrated many of their covers, and the Rentoul sisters' three songbooks long remained among their best sellers after Robertson & Mullens had relinquished their rights. It is easy to overlook such books but they were a very real part of our juvenile culture, and many will remember efforts to master the music or learning songs at school, or becoming familiar with them through children's radio sessions.

Publishing patterns changed in Australia as everywhere else with the onset of the depression in the 1930s. For the first time Angus and Robertson, Dymocks and others showed a loss on the year's trading, or at best, a very small profit. Angus and Robertson's energetic programs were curtailed and their children's series dwindled, though they published Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's Bunch of Wildflowers in 1933, and reprinted it a number of times in the next decade. They also published her Sixpence to Spend, the story of a young bear, showing her moving with the times as animal books were now all the vogue, and she was to produce her 'Benjamin Bear' strip for the Weekly Times from 1933 to the outbreak of war in 1939.

The 1930s largely belong to Dorothy Wall. The idea of writing and illustrating her own children's book came to her when she illustrated Brooke Nicholls's Jacko the Broadcasting Kookaburra for Angus and Robertson. She became fascinated with creating characters from bush creatures, and the examples of the stories of May Gibbs and Norman Lindsay suggested a book written directly for young children and largely inspired by her own young son. The first of her books, Blinky Bill, published in 1933 became an instant success. Casting her hero as a mischievous little boy in the guise of a koala bear in a bush setting was exactly right for her young readers, and her vivacious drawings, precise and beautifully executed, appealed to adults and children alike. Though the publishers at this time were using rather coarse, porous paper, they compromised by inserting some pages of art paper to do justice to Wall's fine black and white drawings. The soft, board bindings invariably lost their back strips, and the bright coloured pictorial dust jackets did not long survive eager young hands. This was the standard format adopted for all their picturebooks throughout the 1930s. Wall's five books published between 1933 and 1937 were all reprinted, and eventually the three Blinky Bill titles were combined into one grossly unattractive volume in 1939. With some adjustments and an improved cover this was how Blinky Bill was to appear for the next thirty years, and despite the best efforts of the publisher, managed to retain its popularity. Wall's last book, Blinky Bill Joins the Army was published in 1940, and she died in 1942.

Probably the most significant books for older children published in Australia in the 1930s were by Frank Dalby Davison. His books achieved very large sales largely because of the school editions which continued to be set for many years to come. Man-Shy, published in 1931, despite a slow start, had sold 54,000 copies by 1946, and Children of the Dark People 35,000 by 1948, while Dusty, belongs to a later period. These books reflect the national sentiment that developed during the 1930s when writing about the outback began to soar in popularity. Readers who had enjoyed such books as Ion Idriess's Flynn of the Inland, Frank Clune's Roaming Down the Darling, or Myrtle Rose White's No Roads Go By acclaimed Man-Shy and Davison's other books.

In such a brief survey it is not possible to mention more than a few books and authors and I am painfully aware of having omitted names and books I should have liked to have mentioned, such as C. J. Dennis's A Book for Kids, D. H. Souter, Harold Gaze, Pixie O'Harris, Gladys Lister, and others. Even through the depression years an occasional, handsome little book was published in a small edition by some individual publisher or bookseller, proclaiming there was still support existing for high standards in the writing, illustrating and production of some books for children, and hence some hope for the future.>

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Last Updated : 29 September 1998