Guide to the Papers of Elyne Mitchell, c.1928-2002

 

Collection context

Summary

Collection number:
MS 9633
Creator:
Mitchell, Elyne
Extent:
9.75 metres and (62 boxes + 1 folio box)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as [Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Elyne Mitchell, National Library of Australia, MS 9633, [series and/or file number].

Background

Scope and content:
The papers in the collection were accumulated over the course of Mitchell's long life and career. There are drafts of nearly all her published works, including for The silver brumby, letters from many fans of her writings, correspondence with publishers, reviews of her published works and a large group of royalty statements. Of particular interest are lengthy runs of informative letters from two of her early literary mentors, Judith Wright and her cousin, Ethel Anderson. There is also a large collection of black and white photographs and negatives of the Australian alpine landscape dating from the 1930s-1940s.
Biographical / historical:

Author and grazier. (Sibyl) Elyne Keith Chauvel was born in Melbourne on 30 December 1913, the daughter of General Sir Harry and Lady Sibyl Chauvel (née Sibyl Campbell Keith Jopp). She was educated at St Catherine’s School, Melbourne

In 1935, Mitchell married grazier, lawyer, and later parliamentarian, Thomas Walter Mitchell, with whom she had four children. She moved to his family property, Towong Hill, near Corryong in the Australian Alps, where she was to spend the rest of her life. Her husband was a keen skier and introduced Mitchell to the sport, which she took up with what was to become a lifelong enthusiasm.

Mitchell is best known as a children's author for her series of novels featuring brumbies of the Snowy Mountains region of the Australian Alps, the first of which, The silver brumby was published in 1958. The novel came about because Mitchell's children were not keen on the texts they were sent to read as part of their correspondence studies. Mitchell decided to write a book they could relate to, based on the Australian alpine region in which they lived. It proved to be her most enduring work and has been reprinted a number of times, published overseas and made into a film and an animated children’s television series. It was the first in a series of sixteen highly successful children’s novels set in the Australian Alps. Her final brumby novel, Wild echoes ringing, was published posthumously in 2003.

Mitchell published several autobiographical works including her first book, Speak to the earth (1945), which documents her efforts to run Towong Hill during World War II while her husband was serving overseas and then interned in Changi Prison. Chauvel country: the story of a great Australian pioneering family (1983) sets out her family history, while Towong Hill: fifty years on an Upper Murray cattle station (1989) recounts her life on the family property. Mitchell also published several books about the Australian Alps, for which she had a great love.

In 1988 Mitchell was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to literature, and in 1993 received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Charles Sturt University.

Elyne Mitchell died at Corryong, Victoria on 4 March 2002.

Immediate source of acquisition:
The collection was acquired from the family of Elyne Mitchell in six instalments between 2002 and 2008, with the bulk of the material being purchased in 2007. The collection was originally comprised of two components. The first component was papers that were in Mitchell's possession at the time of her death in 2002, while the second component was papers that had been left by Mitchell in the care of her agent, Curtis Brown. These two components have been brought together to form the entirety of the Elyne Mitchell Papers.
Arrangement:
The papers in this collection were accumulated over Elyne Mitchell's lifetime. When received, the papers were largely in no discernable order, and have been arranged into series and files by the Library. Any material grouped together by Mitchell has been retained as such, within the relevant series.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Literature
Names:
Mitchell, Elyne

Access and use

Conditions governing access:
Permission required for research for the lifetime of Honor Auchinleck. Not for loan.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as [Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Elyne Mitchell, National Library of Australia, MS 9633, [series and/or file number].
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: