State Library Victoria > La Trobe Journal

No 60 Spring 1997

108

Melbourne Leads The Way: Children's Book Week in 1924

‘It is all very well to read comics…’
At this time the Children's Book Council is struggling to find more than $5,000 prize money for the 1998 Children's Book of the Year awards1, it is worthwhile reflecting on children's book promotion in an earlier period in Australia's literary history when financial resources were scarce. In October 1924 a Children's Book Week was celebrated in Victoria. It was the first Children's Book Week to be launched in Australia. The annual Australian CBWs, so well known now, did not begin until 1945. The 1924 CBW ran from 20 to 27 October, during the then customary ‘Henley Week’ with its private school rowing regattas. The event was well publicised with special articles in the newspapers — the Argus, the Herald, the Age, the Sun News Pictorial, and others such as the Advocate, the Australasian, the Leader, Table Talk, the Weekly Times, and the boy's magazine Pals. They drew attention to the activities planned, the main players, and current and favourite Australian children's books and authors. At the same time they expressed attitudes towards children and their literature, thus providing a detailed picture of the Australian children's book trade in 1924.
Significantly, there are parallels with the development of the latter-day CBW. Both events occurred shortly after the end of world war, during those difficult years when the nation was in recovery. Optimism prevailed despite the loss of 60,000 young Australian lives in World War I and the despair of unemployment for many of the returned servicemen. A new phenomenon, ‘the pictures’, was transforming popular entertainment, and electricity was becoming generally available. Radio depended on electricity, and the success of the CBW was enhanced by the almost simultaneous introduction of radio broadcasting to Melbourne. The radio station 3AR began broadcasting in January 1924, and 3LO began just one week before CBW on 13 October.2 On that day Dame Nellie Melba gave her farewell performance, eagerly heard by thousands who tuned in on their recently purchased crystal sets. Other ‘firsts’ in 1924 were the opening of the Capitol Theatre and the introduction of orchestral concerts for children by the conducter Bernard Heinze.3 Vegemite had already made its debut in 1923!
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The idea for the 1924 CBW was got from a similar event in the United States. Children's Book Week, the Weekly Times stated, was initiated in America in 1919 by the Booksellers’ Association, the American Library Association, Boy Scouts of America, and the Associated Publishers, and in five years had become an annual national campaign which thousands of communities used to stimulate interest in literature for boys and girls. Their General Federation of Women's Clubs (with a membership of almost 3 million) had prepared a home library list of 200 volumes, devoting a quarter of the space to children's books.4
According to the Argus, the proposal for a Victorian CBW was made at a meeting of the Melbourne Retail Booksellers Association (actually the Victorian Booksellers’ Association), and the idea was received enthusiastically.5 Punch attributed the idea for CBW to Captain C.H. Peters, the General Manager of Robertson & Mullens, and published a cartoon (Figure 8) acknowledging his energy and enthusiasm.6
A central planning committee of 14 was formed, with Peters as Chairman and R.G. Linehan as Secretary.7 The other members were Leonard Slade, Alfred Ernest McMicken, Charles R. Long, Gratton Stewart, Frank Wilmot (‘Furnley Maurice'), H.J. Rees, Ellsworthy, Dan Thorpe, W. Anderson, Elsie Belle Champion, Violet M. Grant and Miss Cuthbertson.8 The objectives of CBW were to inculcate the reading habit in the young and to guide their choice to worthy books.9 The Advocate described it as a ‘movement’ which aimed to ‘foster an early love of good reading in the young’ so as to ‘prepare their minds, by the formation of taste, selective quality and a critical sense, for the enjoyment of the major beauties of the great masters of literature.’10 The central committee planned publicity in newsapers, and a nightly broadcasting program with five- to ten-minute items, including talks and stories by prominent authors, an editor, and a librarian. They ‘circularized’ teachers, ministers, scout masters, librarians and editors of the daily newspapers and other journals, and many promised to help.11 Other local committees promoted CBW in almost every town in Victoria.12
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The central committee members included nine booksellers, a librarian, a newsagent, an author and two editors. Linehan sold books to Catholic schools and convents; Slade was a senior bookseller with Robertson & Mullens; McMicken was the Principal Librarian at the Prahran Public Library; Stewart managed the Methodist Book Depot; Wilmot was both bookseller with Cole's Book Arcade and an author-publisher; Rees was a newsagent; Ellsworthy managed the Diocesan Book Society; Thorpe edited the booktrade journal Ideas, which preceded the Australian Bookseller & Publisher, Champion ran The Book Lover's Library; Grant was later to be in charge of the children's department in Robertson & Mullens by 1928; and Cuthbertson managed the Austral Library and Bookshop.13 Long was solely responsible for Victorian Education Department publications, ensuring that ‘much of the best of Australian literature’ was included in children's reading. He edited the first School Paper from 1896, retiring in 1925.14 W. Anderson may have been the sculptor and teacher, Wallace Anderson.15
Professional links between these committee members, the various roles of Frank Wilmot, alias Furnley Maurice, and the fact that writers were personally known to librarians and booksellers (Jeannie Gunn's husband, Aeneas, had preceded McMicken as librarian at the Prahran Public Library16) facilitated the organization of CBW.
Peters played a key role in CBW. As general manager of Robertson & Mullens, he sponsored the event and was supported by members of the Victorian Booksellers Association.17 Later he and Linehan were congratulated and thanked by booksellers ‘for the enormous amount of work they put into the effort’.18 Peters, an energetic man in his mid-thirties, was a returned servicemen and the recipient of the Military Cross.19
The press was very positive about CBW, and the society rag Table Talk expressed the hope that it would be such a memorable and successful week for the children that it would become an annual event.20 CBW even aimed to be, the Age claimed, ‘a factor in the re-establishment of home life'.21 The Weekly Times stated that ‘child literature’ would, during Children's Book Week, be ‘kept in the public eye by the
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press, the pulpit, library committees, and broadcasting stations, and an endeavour… made to establish this movement here as in America, as a national movement.’22 Promotional slogans were used, the main one being: ‘Open to children the world of books'. Another read ‘Books are children's friends; give them plenty of playmates.’23

Figure 8: ‘Winning the children — Captain C.H. Peters’, Punch (Melbourne) 30 October 1924. Cartoon by W.F. Reynolds

The event aroused widespread interest, according to the Australasian Stationery & Fancy Goods Journal, which reported that the daily papers and leading journals gave more than 750 column inches of space to CBW.24 These reports are obviously a treasure trove of information! Examination of a sample of this material reveals remarkably different attitudes towards children, books, and reading. The editor of Pals addressed his young readers thus:
All over Victoria people were talking about books, and making out lists of their favourite authors. Some of you will have heard the short extracts from Australian books for children, which were read out on the broadcasting service by the authors themselves, and the daily papers will have told you quite a lot more about this movement to bring good books within the reach of every boy and girl.25
A writer for the Advocate, the Catholic newspaper, claimed that children in 1924 read little compared with ‘the children of the last decade’ and that the ‘movies’ and
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‘the hundred and one attractions that allure the present-day child from the more abiding virtues of good books [were] accountable in no small degree for this’.26 Reading was described in another article as ‘a constant source of pleasure, entertainment and instruction’, however ‘youngsters’ did not read as much as those of immediately preceding generations, for they enjoyed a greater freedom of entertainment such as ‘movies'. ‘Highbrow’ business in the effort to spread reading among the children would spoil the CBW movement, the writer warned.27
Another writer with the initials P.I.O'L. also warned against being ‘dictatorial in the very important matter of what our children may read’, saying that it was acceptable for them to enjoy blood-stained and thrilling narratives from penny-dreadfuls. There were few authors ‘sovereign’ in children's ‘book-dom, and there were also some pretenders. The well known R.L. Stevenson and Kenneth Graham had written books which were actually better suited to grown-ups. The article suggested many appropriate American, English and Irish authors and titles for children, as well as Australian authors Furnley Maurice (The Bay and Padie Book), Robert Kaleski (animal stories), Henry Lawson (Joe Wilson and his Mates), and Charles Barrett (Bushland Babies).28
‘The Idler’, writing his regular column in Table Talk, joked about CBW, authority, and horse racing:
Children's Book Week is over, and the kiddies ought to know by now what they should allow their parents to read. The Adult's Book Week is coming. It will start at Flemington on Saturday.29
The Leader, on ‘The Children's Page’, cautiously and clumsily expressed the view that the CBW movement did not aim at telling children that they must not read comics and inferior literature, only to recognise them for what they were worth and not to give them first place.30 Furthermore,
It is all very well to read comics for fun when lessons are over, but boys and girls should never allow them to be anything more than fun, for they spoil one's love for good books, and are apt to give a wrong impression of life.31
Parents generally, it bemoaned, allowed their children ‘to spend their pennies on comics, which, although harmless enough from one point of view, are poor food for reflection.’32
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The Herald declared that ‘Wise parents try to help and guide rather than dictate their children's choice'. An elegant editorial described a vast ‘sea of printed matter’ which ‘floods the world today’ placing the young voyager in danger of running aground ‘on the shallows of banality’ or being wrecked ‘with all a child's perishable cargo of unformed tastes and ideals, on the rocks of vulgarity’. It then concluded that ‘we cannot do more than let the good books make out their own case.’33
The Leader defended the classics and recommended Australian books, but only specified one title — We of the Never-Never. It noted a shortage of ‘imaginary settings for Australian stories’ and promoted chiefly British and American authors and titles — Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Dumas, and The Water Babies, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland. Despite the rather preachy tone of the article, it solicited young readers’ views, asking them to write to the page, noting their favorite books.34 In a special article on reading, the newspaper promoted history, literature, fairy stories, myths and legends, which the writer believed provided character-building instruction. Obviously a child could not exist by Australian books alone, for the writer argued:
Without doubt a certain number of Australian books should be read, and with them some Australian verse, but side by side with these should go the legends of Greece and Rome and of the Middle Ages, and readings from accepted classics.35
Thus, attitudes towards children's books and reading showed significant differences regarding children's freedom of choice, parental guidance, permissible popular literature and perceptions of just what Australian children's literature was available at the time. Parents worried about modern ‘distractions’ such as the movies. A small but growing body of Australian children's literature was available, and CBW publicity nurtured and encouraged its development.
A writer for the Herald noted that the CBW movement involved numerous like-minded organisations co-operating to interest children in their choice of reading.36 Numerous organisations and groups, the Argus reported, were asked to assist with CBW, including schoolmasters, clergymen, and various associations such as the Boy Scouts’ Association, the Australian Natives Association, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, and the Junior Rechabites. And, it was reported, ‘those behind the children's library movement eagerly joined in'.37 Although the Sun News Pictorial claimed that the movement
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was organised by the Victorian Children's Library League38, I found no other evidence of this. However, individual libraries were closely involved in the CBW.
The Victorian Education Department was another supporter of the central committee, so the Weekly Times claimed.39 The Age further noted that cinema film companies, the Parents’ National Educational Union and the National Home-Reading Union were all behind the movement.40 Picture theatres planned to show films based on children's books.41 Volunteer helpers had also contacted the Central Committee asking how they could ‘best forward the interests of the movement'.42
Ministers in several Melbourne churches gave special talks relating to children's books during their Sunday services’43. The Rev. A.E. Gifford, chairman of the Congregational Union, advised parents to cultivate their children's friendship. He recommended several books which he believed children would enjoy, saying that ‘Australian writers had provided some of the healthiest and most interesting storybooks in the world’ and warning parents ‘not to attempt to force their children to read the books selected as suitable for them’.44
Booksellers arranged ‘fine displays of new seasons children's books’ in city, suburbs and country towns.45 ‘Yesterday was the first day of the Children's Book Week', the Age announced, and ‘all the windows of the book shops proclaimed the fact… the atmosphere was almost Christmas-like’.46 ‘Special window displays have been arranged at most metropolitan bookshops’, wrote the Argus, noting the collection of dilly bags, throwing sticks, and other native weapons and utensils, as described in Mrs Aeneas Gunn's The Little Black Princess, on view at Robertson & Mullens in Elizabeth Street.47
Radio had begun broadcasting in the United States in 1906, followed by Great Britain in 1920 when Chelmsford station began the first regular transmissions of programmes containing news and music. On 15 June 1920 Dame Nellie Melba became the first professional singer to perform on air. Children's programmes commenced in Britain on 15 November 1922.48 Melbourne's age of radio began soon afterwards in 1924. 3LO experienced technical problems with its early broadcasting and these resulted in blaring, rattling, rumbling and general distortion,
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particularly in musical programmes.49 Nevertheless, several stores placed large advertisements for crystal sets in the daily newspapers. Myer advertised them at 67/6, describing them as ‘efficient, compact sets — ready to receive broadcasting loudly and clearly at 20 miles’.50 Harringtons of 266 Collins St., Melbourne, advertised an ‘Imperia’ crystal set in Table Talk, claiming that it was simple to operate, had a receptive range of 25 miles and was priced at 65/- & 25/-, with headphones ranging from 27/6.51
Children had recently begun listening to Billy Bunny Stories on Fridays at 6.33pm, and also to ‘Uncle Barney's’ regular bedtime stories. Table Talk published a photograph of children listening with earphones and radio,52 drawing parallels with the innovations of the Prahran librarian, A.E. McMicken, well known for his storytelling. The paper applauded the idea of broadcasting stories to children but reminded readers that McMicken had earlier established the principle, incorporated in ‘Children's Hour’ at the Prahran Public Library.53
Each evening during CBW, 3LO broadcast readings of Australian authors of children's books and discussions on the writing of their work. The programme was as follows:
Monday, 20 October — Jeannie Gunn read from The Little Black Princess.54
Tuesday, 21 October — A.E. McMicken, Principal Librarian, Prahran Public Library, discussed ‘Boys and Girls from Dickens Land’55 (the child characters of Dickens56). Lillian Pyke related how her book The Best School of All came to be written.57
Wednesday, 22 October — Rev. A.E. Gifford addressed parents in ‘Books as a Bond Between Parents and Children'.58
Thursday, 23 October — E.G. Jennings, Housemaster at Bracebridge Wilson House, Geelong Grammar,59 lectured on famous books of school life, noting that ‘Australia had yet to develop a literature on school life’ and focused on boys’ literature.60
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Friday, 24 October — Talk by Furnley Maurice and a recitation from his The Bay and Padie Book, by Winifred Moverley. Talk and reading by Mary Grant Bruce.61
Saturday, 25 October — Stories from Winks read by the author J.J. Hall.62
Sunday, 26 October — Charles Barrett read his animal and bush stories from Bush Babies.63
The radio readings by popular Australian authors were particularly well received, both in Melbourne and in the country.64 The Argus, referring to the Friday CBW radio programme, said the goblin ‘Mickey’ in The Bay and Padie Book was one of the most original creations and responsible for milk spills, broken crockery, and ‘large excavations in the jam pot’. Mary Grant Bruce read from Captain Jim, explaining that it had been written in Cork when she was ‘surrounded by sights and scenes connected with the war’.65
The CBW was also a chance to promote children's libraries. The children's library movement provided for every other week of the year, the Herald noted, and libraries gave children ‘an opportunity to find their own way among good books'.66 Children were photographed reading at the Collingwood Free Library.67
The Catholic Reference and Postal Lending Library on The Block in Elizabeth Street, had recently formed a children's section, and a letter to the Advocate called for donations of books from Catholic school children to enhance that collection as well as those of Catholic country primary schools, orphanages and institutions. A substantial description was included of the categories of books required.68 More than twenty years earlier, the Advocate claimed, Mrs Marion Miller Knowles began ‘Aunt Patsy's Postal Library’, with the same motives as CBW supporters.69
Members of the Children's Library League and others promoted the establishment of children's libraries, and they even asked children for book donations to begin collections in areas which needed libraries. Mrs Alice M. Fawcett, Hon. Secretary of the City of Camberwell Women's Service Guild and a member of the Children's Library League Committee, in a letter to the Editor of the Argus, asked children to be involved in CBW by giving books to help to provide the nucleus of a children's
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free lending library in Camberwell.70 The need for children's libraries was being increasingly recognised by suburban councils, with Prahran leading the way, followed by South Melbourne, then North Melbourne. Soon Northcote and Camberwell were likely to ‘take action to provide libraries for children'.71 It was suggested by the Prahran library committee that school children be asked to give books to other ‘less fortunate’ children, that local schools each collect more than 250 books which would form the nucleus of a free lending library for children in a country centre, and smaller schools send a few books to children in orphanages or homes.72
The Hon. Secretary of the Children's Library League, Mr A.E. McMicken, appealed for the establishment of children's libraries throughout the state. School children were to be asked ‘each to give a book for some boy or girl in whose way books might not easily come’. Because children in smaller country towns often had difficulty obtaining books, country centres could be sent books to form the nucleus of a children's free lending library. Shire or mechanics’ institute officers could probably arrange for a suitable room to be used as a children's library, he said, offering Prahran Public Library as a receiving and distribution point for small numbers of books.73 McMicken was pictured in the Sun News Pictorial receiving books from young donors.74 (Figure 9)
The special needs of country children and disabled children were also noted. Table Talk mentioned the scarcity of books in ‘those lonely, remote places in the interior’,75 and an Argus reader suggested that children send picture books to ‘The Talbot Epileptic Colony’, ‘to interest and amuse those suffering little ones’.76
The general store, MacLellan & Co, in Chapel Street, Prahran, ran large CBW advertisements in the Argus,77 with the heading — ‘See the Window Display of Bright and Beautiful Books for Children'. They promoted nursery rhymes, fairy tales, bible stories and a series which included books by Louisa May Alcott, Daniel Defoe, Brothers Grimm, Thomas Hughes, Lewis Carroll, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Susan Coolidge, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Wetherell, Hans Christian Andersen and M.L. Charlesworth. They also advertised in the Sun News Pictorial,78 claiming to have one of the greatest and most comprehensive stocks of good books.
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Figure 9: ‘Alfred McMicken receiving books from young readers’ From The Sun News Pictorial 22 October 1924

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In this department the keenest interest is displayed in supplying the ever-increasing demand for books suitable for children. We have already advertised a number of popular titles, which, together with thousands of other similarly fine works, will be prominently displayed in our windows and book department this week.
Foy & Gibson Pty Ltd. also ran a large advertisement headed ‘Book Week — Pleasant Reading for Boys and Girls’ which listed school stories, Indian stories, stories for tiny tots, Australian stories, standard reading, popular stories and Elsie books.79 Myer promoted children's books and CBW with ‘specials’ on the ground floor of their main store. They noted several categories of bargain books, including Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales as well as nursery rhymes, annuals, favorite gift books (latest Australian and New Zealand titles), Oxford big books, Collins's famous leather classics, and ‘interesting’ story books.80
Local committees planned to organise book-list and essay competitions, The Advocate announced prior to CBW.81 More than 40 schools intended to compete.82 Prahran City Council offered prizes amounting to £24 for essays of not more than 500 words by focal school children on ‘My Favorite Book’ (for children under 12) and ‘The Mystery of the Marie Celeste’ (for children between 12 and 15).83 The Weekly Times reported that the competition was being conducted by the Children's Library League, Prahran.84 A Mrs Lennox organised eight essay competitions in Kew and district, and the author Lillian Pyke organised a similar number in the Brighton district.85
The Herald instituted a competition for a list of the twelve best children's books with a prize of £5/5/.86 They received nearly 200 entries. 465 books were ‘honorably mentioned’, and ‘a pleasing feature was the recognition of the Australian author’ The prize was awarded to a child from Maffra who submitted the list which most nearly approximated the twelve most popular books. The voting, they found, had reflected ‘the decline of many an old-time favorite’, and the most popular books were as follows:
  • Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
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  • Seven Little Australians (Ethel Turner)
  • Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
  • Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
  • Little Black Princess (Jeannie Gunn)
  • Tom Brown's Schooldays (Thomas Hughes)
  • Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
  • Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
  • Grimm's Fairy Tales
  • Swiss Family Robinson (J.D. Wyss)
  • The Water Babies (Charles Kingsley)
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriett Beecher Stowe)
The Australian titles were the most recent; Seven Little Australians having been published in 1894 and Little Black Princess in 1905. Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719. The remaining titles were published in the 19th century.
The Parents National Education Union and the National Home Reading Union were organisations concerned with the provision of good quality books for children and the encouragement of reading. They advertised an annotated catalogue of children's literature, as well as a shorter list entitled ‘A Hundred Joyous Books', published before Christmas ‘to meet the demand created by Children's Book Week'. It was available ‘gratis’ by mail87 and was divided into four sections according to age.88
Adults reminisced about their early reading during the CBW. An example being the well-read Argus columnist ‘Ranelagh', who briefly mentioned numerous books which he had enjoyed as a child.89 Australian children's books were targeted for promotion. Most customers in children's departments of the large booksellers, the Argus said, expressed a preference for Australian stories, favourites being The Little Black Princess, Seven Little Australians, and Mates of Billabong.90 The next day the newspaper drew attention to the ‘very fine’ books and wide choice, noting 12 titles — Billabong‘s Daughter (Mary Grant Bruce), Nicola Silver (Ethel Turner), Brothers of the Fleet (Lillian Pyke), The Dawn Man (Jean Curlewis), The Sunshine Family (Ethel Turner and Jean Curlewis), The End of the Moon Path (Donald McDonald), an addition to the Gumnut series (May Gibbs), The Little Fairy Sister, The Enchanted Forest and The Little Green Road to Fairyland (Ida Rentoul Outhwaite), The Bay and Padie Book (Furnley Maurice), and Winks (J.J. Hall).91 Adventure stories and annuals, especially Australian annuals such as Cole's Funny Picture Book, were also promoted by the Argus.92
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The Weekly Times reviewed Billabong‘s Daugher (Mary Grant Bruce), Bushland Babies (Charles Barrett) and Brothers of the Fleet (Lillian Pyke), noting that they had published Pyke's first stories.93 A portrait and brief article about Pyke were published by the Herald. Her experiences of ‘roughing it’ and living in a tent in Queensland with her surveyor husband had become ‘copy’ for fresh literary themes, she said, and boys would enjoy her book, Brothers of the Fleet.94 No doubt girls too enjoyed the story!
Newspapers also published critical reviews of Australian children's books. Australian annuals were, noted the Argus, ‘uniformly good', but ‘the same cannot be said of all those published in England, where there is a tendency to revert to the “comic paper” type of production’.95 The Australasian reviewed five new Australian books published by Ward, Lock & Co. — Nicola Silver (Ethel Turner), Billabong's Daughter (Mary Grant Bruce), The Dawn Man (Jean Curlewis), Brothers of the Fleet (Lillian Pyke), Jill of the Fourth Form (Lilian Turner) and Little Bit o‘Sunshine by New Zealand author, Isabel M. Peacocke. They commended Charles Barrett's Bushland Babies and also reviewed The Human Pedagogue (R.G. Jennings), citing it as ‘the first serious attempt to create a picture of Australian public school life’ and noting that the characters were mostly unconvincing, sounding more like men than schoolboys.96
Despite the success of this early CBW, it was not continued. Why? Planning such an event demanded leadership, energy, financial sponsorship, and the cooperation of community committees and individuals. In 1925 the main players in the 1924 CBW, such as Captain Peters, may have ‘run out of steam’. At least by 1926 the Australian economy was faltering, and unemployment rates rising. However, this early Children's Book Week in Melbourne in 1924, initiated by booksellers and supported by librarians, writers, teachers, ministers and other community leaders, pushed children's books into the media, and especially into the latest technology — radio. The campaign also nurtured local authors and highlighted the urgent need for children's library services.

1

‘Children's awards unlikely to exceed $5000’, Weekly Book Newsletter, 11 June 1997, no. 1297, p.2.

2

Anthony Barker. What Happened When, A Chronology of Australia 1788-1994 (St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1996), pp.222-223.

3

Ibid., p.223.

4

‘Books & authors: New publications. Book Week’, Weekly Times, 25 October 1924, p.15.

5

‘Reading for children. “Book Week” begins’, The Argus, 20 October 1924, p.13. The Archives of the Victorian Booksellers’ Association were not available.

6

Punch, 30 October 1924, p.4.

7

‘Reading for Children', op.cit.

8

‘Children's Book Week. A Virile Movement Launched. State-Wide Possibilities’, Age, 21 October 1924, p.7.

9

‘An opportunity for booksellers', The Australasian Stationery and Fancy Goods Journal and Booksellers & Newsagents News, 10 October 1924, pp.428, 430.

10

‘The Children's Book Week Movement', Advocate, 16 October 1924, p.24.

11

‘An opportunity for booksellers', op.cit.

12

‘Open world of books. Children's Week begins. What happened to Bert Bett’, Argus, 21 October 1924, p. 10.

13

John Holroyd, retired bookseller and booktrade researcher, recalled the positions of several of these committee members (telephone interview 13/6/97).

14

L.J. Blake (ed.). Vision and Realisation: a Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, v.1. (Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria), 1973, pp.294, 1317-1318.

15

Ibid., p.1339.

16

Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.9, 1891-1939, Gil-Las. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), p.140.

17

‘An opportunity for booksellers', op.cit.

18

‘Children's Book Week', The Australasian Stationery and Fancy Goods Journal and Booksellers & Newsagents News, 10 October 1924, p.478.

19

John Holroyd, op.cit.

20

‘Ladies' Letter’, Table Talk, 23 October 1924, p.36

21

‘Children's Book Week. A Virile Movement Launched’, op.cit.

22

‘Books & authors: New publications. Book Week', Weekly Times, 25 October 1924, p. 15.

23

‘Open world of books', op.cit.

24

‘Children's Book Week', The Australasian Stationery & Fancy Goods Journal and Booksellers & Newsagents News, op.cit.

25

‘The Editor to his Pals’, Pals, 1 October 1924, p.226.

26

‘Children's Book Week Movement, Advocate, 9 October 1924, p.3.

27

‘The Children's Book Week Movement', Advocate, 16 October 1924, p.24.

28

‘Magic casements and literature's fairyland. ‘“Child Book Week” opens them’, Advocate, 23 October 1924, p.3.

29

‘Diary of a man about town. By The Idler’, Table Talk, 30 October 1924, p.15.

30

‘Books & authors: New publications’. Leader, 18 October 1924, p.55.

31

‘Items of interest. By Cinderella. Children's Book Week', Leader, 25 October 1924, p.55.

32

‘The nursery. Reading in the home', Leader, 25 October 1924, p.56.

33

‘Leading children to a world of books', Herald, 18 October 1924, p.8.

34

‘The nursery. Reading in the home', op.cit.

35

Ibid.

36

‘Leading children to a world of books', op.cit.

37

‘Reading for children. “Book Week” begins’, op.cit.

38

Sun News Pictorial, 22 October 1924, p.11.

39

‘Books & authors: New publications. Book Week', op.cit.

40

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

41

‘Reading for children', op.cit.

42

‘Children's Week. Fine displays of books for the young', Herald, 24 October 1924, p. 10.

43

‘Open world of books', op.cit.

44

‘Parents and children. Bond formed by books', Argus, 23 October 1924, p. 14.

45

‘Children's Week. Fine displays of books for the young', op.cit.

46

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

47

‘Reading for children', op.cit.

48

Melvin Harris. ITN Book of Firsts. (London: Michael O'Mara Books, 1994), pp. 115-6.

49

‘Wireless', Age, 21 October 1924, p.12.

50

Herald, 23 October 1924, p.25.

51

Table Talk, 9 October 1924, p.24.

52

‘Melbourne “Listens-In'“, Table Talk, 30 October 1924, p.7.

53

‘Children listening’, Table Talk, 30 October 1924, p.9.

54

‘Open world of books', op.cit.

55

‘Ladies' Letter’, op.cit.

56

‘To-day's broadcasting’, Age, 21 October 1924, p.12.

57

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

58

Ibid.

59

‘A public school story’, Australasian, 18 October 1924, p.939.

60

‘Books of school life. “Human pedagogues” choice. Does “Tom Brown” come first!’, Argus, 24 October 1924, p.10.

61

‘Wireless broadcasting. Programme for Friday, Oct.24.', Argus, 24 October 1924, p.10.

62

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

63

‘Ladies' Letter’, op.cit.

64

‘Children's books. Prize competition popular', Herald, 22 October 1924, p.10.

65

‘Children's Book Week. “The Bay and Padie Book.” How “Captain Jim” was written.', Argus, 25 October 1924, p.28.

66

‘Leading children to a world of books', op.cit.

67

Sun News Pictorial, 24 October 1924, p. 12.

68

‘Children's Book Week. To the Editor of The Advocate’, Advocate, 16 October 1924, p. 12.

69

‘Magic casements and literature's fairyland’, op. cit.

70

‘Open world of books', op.cit.

71

‘Children's Book Week. New annuals arrive. Value of libraries’, Argus, 23 October 1924, p.14.

72

‘Reading for children', op.cit.

73

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

74

Sun News Pictorial, 22 October 1924, p. 11

75

75 ‘Ladies' Letter’, op.cit.

76

‘Books for stricken children’, Argus, 24 October 1924, p.10.

77

Argus, 21 October 1924, p.14.

78

‘Children's Book Week. One of the greatest and most comprehensive stocks of good books is at The Big Store’, Sun News Pictorial, 21 October 1924, p.14.

79

Sun News Pictorial, 22 October 1924, p. 17.

80

Herald, 23 October 1924, p.25.

81

‘Children's Book Week movement’, Advocate, 9 October 1924, p.3.

82

‘Reading for children', op.cit.

83

‘Children's Book Week. A virile movement launched’, op.cit.

84

‘Books & authors: New publications. Book Week', op.cit.

85

‘Children's books. Prize competition popular', op.cit.

86

‘12 best books for children. Result of vote. Decline of the old favorites,’ Herald, 28 October 1924, p.7.

87

‘Books for Children', Age, 16 October 1924, p. 13.

88

‘Best twelve books “Herald” competition entries. Australians well represented’, Herald, 16 October 1924, p.25.

89

‘Child book memories’, Argus, 25 October 1924, p.8.

90

‘Open world of books’, op.cit.

91

‘Good books for children. Recent Australian volumes’, Argus, 22 October 1924, p.10.

92

‘Children's Book Week. New annuals arrive. Value of libraries’, Argus, 23 October 1924, p.14.

93

‘Books & authors. New publications. Book Week', op.cit.

94

‘Australian authoress. Adored by schoolgirls “Listen In” next week for her stories'. Herald, 15 October 1924, p.10.

95

‘Children's Book Week. New annuals arrive…', op.cit.

96

Australasian, 18 October 1924, p.939.