John Mystery and the Australian Book Trade

Authors

  • Juliet O'Conor State Library of Victoria, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2012vol22no1art1124

Keywords:

John Mystery, children's literature, State Library of Victoria Children’s Literature Collection, Ken Pound Collection, Lester Sinclair, E. W. Cole

Abstract

The Children’s Literature Collection at the State Library of Victoria holds over 100,000 Australian and overseas children’s books published between the sixteenth and twenty-first centuries. In 1994 this collection was significantly enhanced through the acquisition of the Ken Pound collection of children’s books and ephemera. When buying at local fairs and markets over twenty-five years, Ken Pound made no distinction between quality of content or ephemerality. If a publication addressed a child readership, Ken Pound added it to his collection. The State Library’s acquisition of this collection means that publications from small Australian publishers, variant editions of titles, advertising, merchandising and other ephemeral material augment the existing strengths of the Children’s Literature Collection. The comprehensive scope of the Australian component of this heritage collection of children’s books positions it as a unique research resource for children’s literature scholars.

I begin by identifying the factors that operated to relegate the John Mystery children’s books to the forgotten basket of Australian literary heritage. The John Mystery emporium occupied a niche in the Australian book trade at a time when existing Australian publishers were minimizing output due to war-time restrictions on labour and materials. In contextualizing the John Mystery phenomenon, I compare the flamboyance and eccentricity of the creator, Lester Sinclair, with the earlier entrepreneur, E. W. Cole, who employed similarly theatrical marketing strategies. Also, I interrogate content of a selection of John Mystery titles and reflect on the values embedded in these seemingly innocent escapist fantasies. Finally I will suggest how the State Library of Victoria’s heritage collections present potential resources for scholars of children’s literature.

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Author Biography

  • Juliet O'Conor, State Library of Victoria, Australia

    Juliet O’Conor is the Children’s Research Librarian at the State Library of Victoria responsible for over 100,000 Australian and overseas children’s books published between the 16th and 21st centuries. Her ongoing doctoral study at Deakin University examines a selection of 20th century Indigenous Australian traditional stories for children.

References

Barton, C. (1841) A Mothers Offering to Her Children. Sydney, Gazette Office.

Bradford, C. (1998) ‘(Re)Constructing Australian childhood: the Pound Collection at the State Library of Victoria, Australia’, The Lion and the Unicorn 22, 3, 327-337.

Cole, E. (c 1885) Coles Funny Picture Book. Melbourne, Coles Book Arcade.

Moors, D. (1997) ‘John Mystery: ‘the nation’s story teller’’, La Trobe Journal 60, 31-39.

Muir, M. (1970-1976) A Bibliography of Australian Children’s Books. London, Deutsch.

Muir, M. (1992) Australian Children’s Books: A Bibliography Volume One 1774-1972. Carlton, Vic., Melbourne University Press.

Mystery, J. (c 194?) Adventures of the Woolly Sisters: Pearl and Plain Jane. Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1943) My Big Book of Aeroplanes. Sydney, Lonsdale & Bartholomew.

Mystery, J. (c 1944a) John Mystery’s Puddin Puss in the Dismal Dragon. Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1944b) John Mystery’s Puddin Puss in the Mirthful Monk, Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1944c) John Mystery’s Puddin Puss in the Wicked Witch. Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1945) In Blinkyland with Grimm. Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1945-1950) Cobbers: Australian Children’s Annual. Sydney, Lonsdale & Bartholomew.

Mystery, J. (c 1945-1950) John Mystery’s Sweethearts Good Book. Sydney, Publicity Press.

Mystery, J. (c 1950) Thrill Time for Boys. Sydney, Lonsdale & Bartholomew.

O’Neill, T. & O’Neill, F. (1989) Australian Children’s Books to 1980: A Select Bibliography of the Collection Held in the National Library of Australia. Canberra, National Library of Australia.

State Library of Victoria, Children’s Literature Collection. Available from: http://slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/collection-strengths/childrens-books [Accessed 30 March 2012].

State Library of Victoria, Creative Fellowships. Available from: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-community/fellows-scholars/creative-fellowships [Accessed 30 March 2012].

State Library of Victoria, Heritage Collections. Available from: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections [Accessed 30 March 2012].

State Library of Victoria, Online Catalogue. Available from: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/explore/research-tools [Accessed 30 March 2012].

State Library of Victoria, Research Guides. Available from: http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/ [Accessed 30 March 2012].

State Library of Victoria, Research Guides, Children’s Literature. Available from: http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/childrensliterature [Accessed 16 August 2012].

Vening, C. & Overett, D. (unpublished manuscript) ‘In Search of John Mystery’.

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Published

2012-01-01

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Section

Articles

How to Cite

“John Mystery and the Australian Book Trade” (2012) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 22(1), pp. 68–80. doi:10.21153/pecl2012vol22no1art1124.

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