Isabel Mary Mitchell
{{Short description|Australian author (1893–1973)}}
Isabel Mary Mitchell {{postnominals|country=AUS|MBE}} (1893–1973)[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mitchell-isabel-mary-7605 Australian Dictionary of Biography] was an Australian known for her services to literature.[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44999/supplement/22/data.pdf SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, IST JANUARY 1970] She went blind in the 1940s and wrote about this in "Uncharted country [braille] : aspects of life in blindness."[http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10409861?selectedversion=NBD4730686 National Library of Australia Trove] She wrote eight novels after losing her sight through the use of dictaphone and typewriter.[https://dcmp.org/public_content/ai/265/ Described and Captioned Media Program]
Mitchell also wrote three detective novels under the name Josephine Plain.{{Cite book|title=Pseudonyms|author=Joseph F. Clarke|publisher=BCA|date=1977|page=133}} The Secret of the Sandbank was first published in the Melbourne afternoon daily newspaper The Herald in instalments.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243121692 |title=NEW THRILLING DETECTIVE STORY -- FIRST INSTALMENT BEGINS TODAY |newspaper=The Herald |issue=17,465 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=6 May 1933 |accessdate=11 September 2018 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Mitchell was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 for service to literature.Australia list: {{London Gazette
| issue = 45000
| date = 30 December 1969
| pages = 35–40
| supp = y
| nolink = yes
}}
Selected works
- {{Citation |author1=Mitchell |first=Mary |title=A Warning to Wantons:A Fantastic Romance Setting Forth the Not Undeserved but Awful Fate Which Befell a Minx |date=1934 |publisher=Doubleday Doran |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16406513}}
- {{Citation |author1=Mitchell |first=Mary |title=The Secret of the Sandbank |date=1935 |publisher=Thornton Butterworth |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16859309}}
- {{Citation |author1=Mitchell |first=Mary |title=The Secret of the Snows |date=1935 |publisher=Thornton Butterworth |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35132128}}
- {{Citation |author1=Plain |first=Josephine |title=The Pazenger Problem |date=1936 |publisher=London Thornton Butterworth Ltd |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/228233208}}
Family
She was the daughter of Edward Fancourt Mitchell.[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mitchell-sir-edward-fancourt-7603/text13281 Australian Dictionary of Biography for Edward Fancourt Mitchell] She was the sister of Janet Charlotte Mitchell and Agnes Eliza Fraser Mitchell, who wrote as Nancy Adams.{{Cite web |title=Nancy Adams |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A31331 |access-date=2023-03-29 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}}
References
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Category:20th-century Australian women writers
Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Australian blind people
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