- Entry type: Person
- Entry ID: AWE6259
Phipson, Joan Margaret
(1912 – 2003)- Born 16 November, 1912, Warrawee New South Wales Australia
- Died 2 April, 2003
- Occupation Children's writer
Summary
Children’s writer Joan Phipson was educated at Frensham School, New South Wales, and was later invited back to work as a printer and librarian. There she established Frensham Press. Later Joan studied journalism, worked for Radio 2GB and Reuters London, and also served with the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force.
After meeting Colin Fitzhardinge during World War II, the pair married in 1944. Soon after she wrote her first award-winning novel, Good luck to the Rider, which won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year award in 1953. By 1994 Joan had written 30 books and today she is best known for her quintessentially Australian children’s books, which she produced during the 1950s and 1960s.
Joan Phipson was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994 for service to children’s literature.
Archival resources
- National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
- National Library of Australia, Oral History and Folklore Collection
- NULL
- National Library of Australia