Lilith Norman

Norman was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 27 November 1927.{{Cite web |last= |title=Lilith Norman |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A29587 |access-date=2022-05-20 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |language=en}} Part of her childhood was spent in Goulburn, where she attended Bourke Street Primary School,{{cite news |date=2 April 1937 |title=Exam Results |page=8 (Daily) |newspaper=Goulburn Evening Penny Post |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102759862 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 May 2022}} came second in Class 6A{{cite news |date=4 September 1939 |title=August Test |page=2 (Daily) |newspaper=Goulburn Evening Penny Post |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103161747 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 May 2022}} and secured admission to Goulburn High School.{{cite news |date=5 December 1939 |title=Successful Pupils |page=7 (Daily) |newspaper=Goulburn Evening Penny Post |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103164958 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 May 2022}} Instead she moved to Waverley and was educated at Sydney Girls High School from 1940 to 1944.{{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/29017391 |title=The brown and yellow : Sydney Girls' High School 1883–1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-554431-5 |location=Melbourne |pages=233–234 |oclc=29017391}} She won a short story prize in 1943.

Norman found work as an assistant at Newtown Library from 1947 to 1948 and worked as a telephonist at a London hotel 1950–1951. Returning to Sydney she became a sales assistant at Angus & Robertson in 1952–1953. She then nursed at Balmain Hospital for three years before returning to librarianship, being promoted to children's librarian at the Sydney Public Library in 1966.{{Cite web |last=Saxby |first=Maurice |date=2018-02-15 |editor-last=Hamilton |editor-first=Margaret |title=Vale Lilith Norman 1927–2017 |url=https://readingtime.com.au/vale-lilith-norman-1927-2017/ |access-date=2022-05-20 |website=Reading Time |language=en-US}}

In 1970 Norman joined the New South Wales School Magazine as assistant editor. She was promoted to editor in 1975 on the resignation of Patricia Wrightson. After three years as editor she resigned in December 1978 to write full time.{{cite news |date=12 April 1979 |title=Resignations |page=1841 |newspaper=Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales |issue=53 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219961682 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=21 May 2022}}

Her works for children were noted for their realistic depictions of families facing difficult circumstances. A Dream of Seas, for example, deals with a young boy coping with his father's death and has "elements of magic realism".{{Citation |last=Lees |first=Stella |title=Norman, Lilith |date=2006 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-2374 |work=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-2374 |isbn=978-0-19-514656-1 |access-date=2022-05-20 |last2=Macintyre |first2=Pam}}

• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=Climb a lonely hill |publication-date=1970 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-184351-6}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=The shape of three |publication-date=1971 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-184762-0}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=The flame takers |publication-date=1973 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-661224-7}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=Mocking-bird man |publication-date=1977 |author-mask=2 |others=Lacis, Astra (illustrator) |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |isbn=978-0-340-22208-9 |author2=}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=A dream of seas |publication-date=1978 |author-mask=2 |others=Bell, Edwina (illustrator) |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-184372-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=My simple little brother |publication-date=1979 |author-mask=2 |others=Rae, David (illustrator) |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-184391-2}}
• {{Citation |author1=Lilith Norman |title=The paddock: a story in praise of the earth |publication-date=1993 |others=Roennfeldt, Robert (illustrator) |publisher=Random House |isbn=9780091826512}}
• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=Grandpa |publication-date=1998 |author-mask=2 |others=Young, Noela (illustrator) |publisher=Margaret Hamiltion Books |isbn=978-0-947241-52-0}}

• {{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Lilith |title=The brown and yellow : Sydney Girls' High School 1883–1983 |publication-date=1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Young, Noela (cover designer/illustrator) |isbn=978-0-19-554431-2}}

• Sydney Morning Herald Literary Competition – Poetry, joint third prize, 1947
• Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, commended for Climb a Lonely Hill, 1971{{cite news |date=10 July 1971 |title=1971 awards |volume=45 |page=15 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=12,859 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110666933 |access-date=20 May 2022 |via=National Library of Australia}}
• IBBY Australia Honour for Writing, winner for A Dream of Seas, 1980
• Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature – Picture Book and Younger Readers, winner for Granpa, 1999
• Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book, honour book for Granpa, 1999

{{Reflist}}

• [http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/09/hht_20100912.mp3 An Older Kind of Magic: Interview about The School Magazine], ABC Radio (from 23:40–31:00 mins)
• [https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-152759452 Lilith Norman at her home, Sydney, 1995], photograph by Reece Scannell
• {{LCAuth|n92036988|Lilith Norman|7|ue}}

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Category:1927 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Australian children's writers

Category:People educated at Sydney Girls High School