Mavis Thorpe Clark (1909–1999)

Mavis Thorpe Clark, born in Melbourne, Australia, began writing as a child. She published her first story for children in The Australasian newspaper at age 14. She wrote her first full-length children's novel at age 18 and published it a few years later in 1930.

In 1932, she married Harold Latham, with whom she had two daughters. She became a prolific writer, mainly for children and teenagers, but she also produced biographies, other nonfiction works, and many articles, short stories, and scripts for newspaper, magazines, and radio.

Mavis Thorpe Clark loved the Australian outback. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s she traveled extensively in South Australia and Western Australia gathering material for her work.

In 1967, she won the Children's Book Council of the Year award for The Min-Min, which was set in the South Australia outback.