May Gibbs

Cecilia May Gibbs (1877-1969), author and illustrator, was born on 17 January 1877 at Sydenham, Kent, England, only daughter of Cecilia (born Rogers) and Herbert William Gibbs, artist and public servant. In 1881 the family emigrated to South Australia, first to a farm and then to Norwood. They moved in 1885 to Harvey, Western Australia, and after two years to Perth, where Cecilia attended Amy Best's school for girls. She went to London in 1900, where she studied art at the Cope and Nichol School and the South Western Polytechnic, Chelsea, before returning in 1901. As 'Blob' she contributed cartoons to Social Kodak. She went again to London in 1904-05 where she enrolled at Blackburn's School for Black and White Artists.

Back in Perth, May Gibbs worked for the Western Mail but left again in 1909 for England, meeting with more success on this visit. She secured work as an illustrator and found a publisher for her 'Mimie and Wog' children's story (About Us 1912). She became a close friend of Rene Heames, an active member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, who accompanied her to Sydney in 1913.

May Gibbs was a stylish and witty illustrator and in Sydney her work was soon in demand. In 1916 she published Gumnut Babies, the first of the bush babies series which made her famous. It was an immediate success, as was its sequel Gum-Blossom Babies. Three more bush baby books appeared in quick succession. When she published Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1918) 17,000 copies were sold on first release. Her books told children not to be cruel to animals, for which she was made a life member of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1919).

She visited her family in Perth in 1918, and returned to marry Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, a retired mining agent, on 17 April 1919. They came to Sydney, and after six weeks took a flat which they shared with Rene Heames and May's other close friend Rachel Matthews. Later they built 'Nutcote', a Spanish-type house with a garden reaching to the Harbour. May's success continued. Four more books appeared between 1921-24. From 1925 the Sydney Sunday News ran her 'Bib and Bub' cartoon strip and a second comic strip 'Tiggy Touchwood' appeared under the pseudonym 'Stan Cottman' in the Sunday Sun. She was one of the earliest and most successful Australian strip cartoonists, successfully negotiating sales to other newspapers in Australia and overseas. May aspired also to recognition as a portrait painter, exhibiting without much success in the Women Painters' and Society of Artists' exhibitions. She enjoyed theatre and concerts and though not a Bohemian moved socially in artistic circles.

Her contracts for the cartoon strips fell off during the 1930s depression and demand for her books also fell. Two new books appeared in 1941 and 1943 and her last, Prince Dande Lion, in 1953. She was appointed MBE in 1955. May Gibbs died childless on 27 November 1969 leaving an estate valued at 45,532 pounds, her main beneficiaries being the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children, the Spastic Centre of New South Wales and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.

Generations of Australian children enjoyed her books. Her great talent lay in creating forest and animal characters with human characteristics, and the behaviour which, when encountered in adults, delights, puzzles and terrorises children. With skilful play on words, particularly in naming her characters, and strong images, the banksia men being the most notable, her best work had the power of the classical fairytale.

Heather Radi

Maureen Walsh May Gibbs, Mother of the Gumnuts: Her Life and Work 1985.