Joyce Nicholson

Publisher, author and feminist, Joyce Nicholson (1919-2011) was the daughter of D.W. Thorpe, a Melbourne publisher. She married George Nicholson in 1943 with whom she had four children.

The author of more than twenty-five books, she worked for her father’s company, eventually serving as its managing director. In this capacity she was editor of Australian Bookseller and Australian Books in Print. Her contribution to Australia’s literary scene was prodigious. Many of her books were written for children and in 1957 she organised the first Children’s Book Week in Victoria. She was a founding member of the National Book Council in 1974.

Her interest in history led her to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and she was an RHSV Councillor from 1966 to 1975. She edited the Society’s newsletter from 1971 to 1974 and was Victorian Historical Journal book review editor in 1974. She became a Fellow in 1977.

Joyce Nicholson was also an early member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) and said that when Women’s Liberation came to Australia ‘it was like a new world’. In 1975 she wrote What society does to girls followed by The heartache of motherhood in 1983. In 1991 she completed an MA on ‘The Women’s Electoral Lobby and women’s employment: strategies and outcomes’.

On her death, historian Andrew Lemon wrote that ‘Hers was a career that evolved, but Joyce Nicholson was prolific, imaginative, industrious and painstaking throughout.’