{{short description|Australian children's writer and illustrator}} {{for|the American Olympic skier|Elizabeth McIntyre}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Elisabeth MacIntyre | honorific_suffix = | image = Elisabeth MacIntyre 1953.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Elisabeth MacIntyre and daughter Jane, 1953 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Elisabeth Innes MacIntyre | birth_date = {{birth date|1916|11|01|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|07|07|1916|11|1|df=y}} | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, illustrator | language = | residence = | nationality = Australian | citizenship = | education = [[East Sydney Technical College]] | alma_mater = | home_town = | period = | genre = Picture books, cartoon strips, YA novels <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = | notableworks = ''Ambrose Kangaroo''<br />''Susan, Who Lives in Australia'' or ''Katherine''<br />''Hugh's Zoo'' <!-- or: | notablework = --> | spouse = John Roy Eldershaw <!-- or: | spouses = --> | partner = <!-- or: | partners = --> | children = Jane Eldershaw | relatives = | awards = [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]], 1965 | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = 1941–1982 | module = | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc; or omit --> }} '''Elisabeth MacIntyre''' (born''' Elisabeth Innes MacIntyre''', also spelled Elizabeth MacIntyre; 1 November 1916 – 7 July 2004) was an Australian writer and illustrator. She mainly produced children's picture books and cartoon strips, but also created cartoon strips for adults and novels for young adults. She is recognised as "a staunch advocate of promoting Australian animals and surrounds in an era when the majority of children's books were imported from England".<ref name="RiP">{{cite journal |title=RiP |journal=Reading Time |date=1 November 2004 |volume=48 |issue=4 |page=16 |publisher=Children's Book Council of Australia |issn=0155-218X}}</ref> Her picture books appealed for their lively, bright illustrations and "irresistible",<ref name="Thompson"/> "infectious",<ref name="Secker"/> stories (several in rhyme), which used line and words economically and effectively. She was successful in the Australian, American and British markets, and some of her novels were also translated into German and Japanese. Her best known works are ''Ambrose Kangaroo'', ''Susan, Who Lives in Australia'' (also published as ''Katherine''), and ''Hugh's Zoo'', for which she won the Australian [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]] in 1965.

== Biography == MacIntyre was born in [[Sydney]] on 1 November 1916,<ref name="AustLit">{{cite web |title=Author record, Elisabeth MacIntyre |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A41494 |website=AustLit |publisher=[[University of Queensland]]|access-date=19 June 2019 |location=St Lucia |date=2002–2019}}</ref><ref name="Adelaide">{{cite book |last1=Adelaide |first1=Debra |title=Australian women writers: a bibliographic guide |date=1988 |publisher=Pandora |isbn=9780863581489 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SbgAAAAMAAJ&q=MacIntyre |access-date=19 June 2019}}</ref><ref name="Dromkeen">{{cite book |editor1-last=Scobie |editor1-first=Susan |title=The Dromkeen Book of Australian Children's Illustrators |date=1997 |publisher=Scholastic Australia |isbn=1863886958 |page=97}}</ref> the daughter of John Norman MacIntyre,<ref name="GayToys">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172357227 |title=Queensland Artist's Exhibition of Gay Toys For Little Folk |newspaper=[[Telegraph (Brisbane)|The Telegraph]] |location=Brisbane |date=18 November 1941 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=9|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> owner of a [[Station (Australian agriculture)|station]] near [[Burketown, Queensland|Burketown]], North Queensland, and his wife Laura Minnie (née Rendall).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21833374 |title=MacIntyre-Rendall. |newspaper=[[The Queenslander]] |issue=2282 |date=4 December 1909 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> She had one brother and one sister<ref name="SMH1953"/> (playwright Peggy C. MacIntyre),<ref name="GayToys"/> and grew up in country [[New South Wales]].<ref name="AustLit"/><ref name="Adelaide"/> Her grandfather Donald MacIntyre, of Dalgonally Station in north Queensland, was the cousin of [[Duncan McIntyre (explorer)|Duncan McIntyre, an explorer]].<ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Eldershaw"/> MacIntyre became deaf in her teenage years as a result of an accident.<ref name="AustLit"/><ref name="Eldershaw"/><ref name="DavidJones">{{cite news |title=Toy marmot "running-in" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122747599/?terms=%22Elisabeth%2BMacIntyre%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=6 November 1966 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=120}}</ref> She attended first [[SCEGGS Darlinghurst]], and then [[Bowral High School]].<ref name="Eldershaw"/> She studied commercial art at [[East Sydney Technical College]],<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="GayToys"/><ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Australasian">{{cite journal |title=Lucky Elisabeth. Elisabeth MacIntyre |journal=The Australasian Book News and Literary Journal |date=1946 |volume=1 |pages=511–513 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVQPAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Elisabeth+MacIntyre%22 |access-date=23 June 2019}}</ref> and credited [[Thea Proctor]] for giving her encouragement and inspiration in her art.<ref name="GayToys"/><ref name="SMH1953"/> She worked as a graphic designer, starting at a printing company in [[Woolloomooloo]], where her first job was to design display cards,<ref name="SMH1953"/> and then at an advertising company,<ref name="Dromkeen"/> where she designed soap and cosmetics packaging.<ref name="SMH1953">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18372898 |title=She's Off To Show America The Real Australia. Artist, Author, Mother |newspaper=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=7 May 1953 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=4 (Women's Section) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> During World War II, MacIntyre worked as a fruit picker in the [[Women's Land Army]].<ref name="AustLit"/><ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Eldershaw">{{cite news |last1=Eldershaw |first1=Jane |title=Love of country writ large in children's books |url=http://search.ebscohost.com.rp.nla.gov.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=anh&AN=SYD-507Q72846E0OUKOF8B4&site=ehost-live |access-date=19 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=28 July 2004 |location=Sydney, New South Wales |page=30}}</ref> She married artist John Roy Eldershaw in about 1950;<ref name="SMH1953"/> they had one daughter, and lived at [[Narrabeen]] on Sydney's [[Northern Beaches]].<ref name="Club"/> When her marriage ended, MacIntyre took other jobs,<ref name="AustLit"/> including working in the display section of department store [[David Jones (department store)|David Jones]].<ref name="DavidJones"/><ref name="Kusko">{{cite news |last=Kusko |first=Julie |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41492377 |title=PINK KOALAS AND BLUE KANGAROOS |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=37 |issue=22 |date=29 October 1969 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=35 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

== Career == === Ambrose Kangaroo === MacIntyre sketched ideas for toys and children's books while working on her assigned tasks at the advertising agency.<ref name="SMH1953"/> She published her first book, ''Ambrose Kangaroo'', in Sydney in 1941.<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir">{{cite book |last1=Muir |first1=Marcie |title=A history of Australian children's book illustration |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Melbourne |isbn=019554269X |pages=110–113}}</ref> She also sent it to [[Scribner's]] in the US, who published it the following year.<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/> A Canadian reviewer considered it outstanding,<ref name="McKillop">{{cite news |last1=McKillop |first1=Annabelle |title=Children's Book Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501256611/?terms=%22Elisabeth%2BMacIntyre%22 |access-date=19 June 2019 |work=[[Windsor Star]]|date=14 November 1942 |location=Windsor, Ontario |page=8}}</ref> and US reviewers thought Ambrose was "delightfully droll",<ref>{{cite news |title=For Young Readers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/187779653/?terms=%22Ambrose%2BKangaroo%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=[[Minneapolis Star Tribune]]|date=26 July 1942 |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |page=12}}</ref> "just as amusing as [[Ferdinand the Bull]]".<ref>{{cite news |last1=C. F. F. |title=To Gladden Youth |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/370225963/?terms=%22Ambrose%2BKangaroo%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=[[Hartford Courant]]|location=Hartford, Connecticut, USA |page=15}}</ref> One US reviewer wrote, "Never did kangaroos look like [this]. But we would not have it otherwise for Ambrose in his blue trousers and wearing a suggestion of a yellow hat between his enormous ears bids fair to captivate a very young audience."<ref name="Eberle">{{cite news |last1=Eberle |first1=Merab |title=Books Of Exceptional Beauty Published For Young Children |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/391937790/?terms=%22Elisabeth%2BMacIntyre%22 |access-date=19 June 2019 |work=The Dayton Herald |date=15 November 1942 |location=Dayton, Ohio |page=8}}</ref> Australian reviewers also liked ''Ambrose Kangaroo'', finding it an "irresistible story",<ref name="Thompson">{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Pat |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240605620 |title=Children's Books |newspaper=[[The Workers Star]] |volume=1 |issue=40 |location=Western Australia |date=21 April 1944 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> which "will entrance the small fry".<ref>{{cite news |last=E.C. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8223681 |title=CHILDREN'S BOOKS |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |issue=29,743 |location=Melbourne|date=20 December 1941 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> ''Ambrose'' went into several Australian editions, and returned in further books in ''Ambrose kangaroo has a busy day'' (1944), ''Ambrose Kangaroo goes to town'' (1964),<ref name="Ridden">{{cite news |last=Ridden |first=Brian |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131758047 |title=Kangaroos in the news |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=10,991 |date=31 October 1964 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and ''Ambrose kangaroo delivers the goods'' (1978).<ref name="Dromkeen"/> From 1945,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247665345 |title=New Color Comic In Tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph |newspaper=[[Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]] |volume=IX |issue=269 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 February 1945 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> MacIntyre also drew an ''Ambrose Kangaroo'' comic strip<ref name="Dromkeen"/> for the ''[[Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)|Sunday Telegraph]]'', Sydney,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247655548 |title=Strip inspired by kangaroos |newspaper=[[Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]] |volume=VI |issue=13 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 February 1945 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> for about seven years,<ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Kusko"/><ref name="Muir"/> and created an ''Ambrose Kangaroo'' TV cartoon, which screened on [[ABC TV (Australian TV channel)|ABC TV]] from 1958.<ref name="Club"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47212541 |title= TV FOR TINIES. AMBROSE KANGAROO |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=26 |issue=22 |date=5 November 1958 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=67 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

=== Cartoon strips === MacIntyre also created several other comic strips during the 1950s. One featured ''George'', "a studious little boy who wanted to learn all about Australia",<ref name="SMH1953"/> published in Melbourne; ''Annabelle'', published in the [[Australian Women's Weekly]], a "gay, irresponsible, exasperating, far-from-perfect secretary ... [who] you can't help liking";<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44020670 |title=This week |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=19 |issue=9 |date=1 August 1951 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and ''Mother'', a weekly cartoon in another women's magazine,<ref name="Proctor">{{cite journal |last1=Proctor |first1=Helen |last2=Weaver |first2=Heather |title=Creating an educational home: mothering for schooling in the Australian Women's Weekly, 1943–1960 |journal=Paedagogica Historica |date=February–April 2017 |volume=53 |issue=1–2 |page=66 |doi=10.1080/00309230.2016.1240209 |s2cid=151724753 |issn=0030-9230 }}</ref> whose "hardships and experiences are mainly autobiographical", according to MacIntyre.<ref name="SMH1953"/>

=== Informational picture books === Following the US publication of ''Ambrose'' in 1942, MacIntyre was asked by Scribners to write about Australia for an American audience, as many American servicemen were based in Australia, and their families wanted to learn about the country.<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Eldershaw"/> ''Susan, Who Lives in Australia'' was published in the US in 1944, and subsequently published in Australia in 1946 under the title ''Katherine''.<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Muir"/> The main character was a small girl who lived on a [[sheep station]] and had a holiday in Sydney.<ref name="Muir"/><ref name="SMH1946"/><ref name="CT1958"/> MacIntyre travelled to America in the early 1950s to meet with her publishers there, and to learn about the reading tastes of American children.<ref name="SMH1953"/><ref name="Age1953">{{cite news |title=Book Tastes of American Child |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123080197/?terms=%22Mr.%2BKoala%2BBear%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Age |date=24 October 1953 |location=Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |page=7}}</ref> Her success in the American market boosted her status in Australia.<ref name="Muir"/> Two later revised editions of ''Katherine'' were published in Australia in 1958 and 1963,<ref name="Muir"/> and all were warmly received, with reviewers in 1946 describing it as charming,<ref name="SMH1946"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96482939 |title=REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS |newspaper=[[The Examiner (Tasmania)|The Examiner]] |volume=CIV |issue=168 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=28 September 1946 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> while a 1958 reviewer called it "one of the most delightful Australian books issued for a long time. Lively, sunny drawings of pets, people and recognisable places and an agreeable rhyming text will make it a favourite".<ref name="CT1958"/> Muir's ''A history of Australian children's book illustration'' considered it "undoubtedly one of the most outstanding Australian {{sic|chil|drens|nolink=y}} books of the immediate post-war period",<ref name="Muir"/> while the biographical dictionary ''Twentieth-century children's writers'' described it as "a straightforward, amusing, uncomplicated description of a little girl "who lives in Australia/ With her toys and her pets and her paraphernalia" [which] has proved to have the most universal and lasting appeal" of MacIntyre's books.<ref name="20thC"/>

Other non-fiction works which followed ''Katherine'' were ''Willie's Woollies: The Story of Australian Wool'' (1951) and ''Jane Likes Pictures'' (1959).<ref name="Muir"/> MacIntyre visited a sheep station near [[Coolac]] to make sketches for ''Willie's Woollies'', in which she also showed processing in woollen mills and garment manufacturing.<ref name="SMH1951talk">{{cite news |title=Sydney's Talking About |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/126109196/?terms=%22Elisabeth%2BMacIntyre%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=8 November 1951 |location=Sydney, New South Wales |page=11}}</ref> The illustrations and text had previously appeared in strip form in ''[[The Age]]'' newspaper's children's section; colour was added to the drawings for the book.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205658935 |title=JUNIOR BOOKSHELF |newspaper=[[The Age]] |issue=30,150 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=15 December 1951 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Reviewers thought it excellent,<ref name="Better">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18499080 |title=Children's Books Are Better |newspaper=[[The Sun-Herald)]] |issue=151 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=16 December 1951 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> "[i]nstructive as well as amusing ... [with] most expressive drawings";<ref name="Advertiser 1951">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45783875 |title=Reviews Of The New Books |newspaper=[[The Advertiser (Adelaide)|The Advertiser]] |volume=94 |issue=29,073 |location=Adelaide |date=15 December 1951 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> "done gaily and simply with colored pictures and a minimum of words. .. combines fun with information".<ref name="Sun1951">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231017915 |title=Reading Guide |newspaper=[[The Sun (Sydney)|The Sun]] |issue=13,120 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=16 February 1952 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=4 Reading Guide |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> MacIntyre also produced a project sheet about wool for junior school students which was published by the Australian Wool Bureau in 1953.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147596949 |title=Project Sheet for Junior Scholars |newspaper=[[Great Southern Herald]] |volume=LI |issue=3718 |location=Western Australia |date=13 November 1953 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><br /> ''Jane Likes Pictures'' was inspired by MacIntyre's daughter's interest in art, and her friends who firstly found her odd, and then joined her in drawing.<ref name="Club">{{cite news |title=Jane's Sketch Club Meets When School Is Out |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123454380/?terms=%22Jane%2BLikes%2BPictures%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=17 October 1957 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=5, Women's Section}}</ref><ref name="Evans">{{cite news |last1=Evans |first1=Jan |title=Read 'N Fun. Jane Just Loves To Draw |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40758485/?terms=%22Jane%2BLikes%2BPictures%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Salina Journal |date=20 September 1959 |location=Salina, Kansas |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133927380 |title=The Child's Pictures Must Tell A Story |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=35 |issue=9,822 |date=28 January 1961 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> It was intended to introduce young children to drawing and painting, and reviewers considered it "delightful";<ref name="Newport">{{cite news |title=Children's Books |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/232807612/?terms=%22Jane%2BLikes%2BPictures%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=Daily Press |date=9 August 1959 |location=Newport News, Virginia, USA |page=4D}}</ref> "a happy book that makes drawing fun";<ref name="Evans"/> "of immediate appeal ... an original and stimulating approach to art for the very young .. [with] a nice economy of words in the text and of line in the illustrations. The "tricks that are easy to do" ... will no doubt lead to some hilarious moments when the young try them out."<ref name="Commins">{{cite news |last1=Commins |first1=Kathleen M. |title=Books For Children. Gaily Coloured Pictures |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122802185/?terms=%22Jane%2BLikes%2BPictures%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=16 April 1960 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=14}}</ref>

MacIntyre's training and experience in commercial art contributed greatly to her success as a children's illustrator.<ref name="Muir"/> MacIntyre herself said, "Children's books have to be simplified, and simplified. ... The idea is to say what the picture doesn't convey, and vice versa. I had good training ... in an advertising agency. Often there was only two or three inches in which to convey all about a product and use an illustration."<ref name="Kusko"/>

=== Fictional picture books === ''Mr. Koala Bear'' (1954) was another of MacIntyre's fictional picture books for young children, about an elderly koala who is unexpectedly visited by two young koalas, who believe he is their uncle.<ref name="Ottawa1954">{{cite news |title=Books For Children |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/456985432/?terms=%22Mr.%2BKoala%2BBear%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Ottawa Citizen |date=9 October 1954 |location=Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |page=17}}</ref><ref name="Evans2">{{cite news |last1=Evans |first1=Jan |title=Read 'N Fun. Story Concerns A Koala Bear |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40704446/?terms=%22Mr.%2BKoala%2BBear%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Salina Journal |date=10 October 1954 |location=Salina, Kansas, USA |page=16}}</ref><ref name="Jenkins1954">{{cite news |last1=Jenkins |first1=Kathleen |title=Excellent Animal Stories |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/419574989/?terms=%22Mr.%2BKoala%2BBear%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Gazette |date=13 November 1954 |location=Montreal, Quebec, Canada |page=29}}</ref><ref name="Nerenberg">{{cite news |last1=Nerenberg |first1=Gloria A. |title=Book Review. Mr. Koala Bear |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/64206983/?terms=%22Mr.%2BKoala%2BBear%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Gazette and Daily |date=26 November 1954 |location=York, Pennsylvania, USA |page=56}}</ref> It was commended by the [[Children's Book Council of Australia]] in the 1955 awards, for "its humorous and pleasing illustrations."<ref name="Award1955">{{cite news |title=Book Of Year For Children |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122685393/?terms=%22Best%2BAustralian%2BChildren%27s%2BBook%22 |access-date=21 June 2019 |work=The Sun-Herald |date=7 August 1955 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=15}}</ref> One reviewer thought, "The pictures, bright and gay as the mischief they portray, are more fun than the rhymes."<ref name="Ottawa1954"/> Another wrote, "The jingles are so musical you almost want to sing them",<ref name="Evans2"/> and another suggested that the "delightful picture book in rhyme ... lends itself best to reading aloud."<ref name="Nerenberg"/> A ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' reviewer found it "not quite at [her] best but still out of the ordinary. Elisabeth MacIntyre supports a thinnish story about Mr. Koala Bear with infectious rhyming couplets and her usual sparkling drawings".<ref name="Secker">"All Things Bright and Beautiful" by Anthea Secker, ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 19 May 1966, issue=3351, page=440. Accessed=19 June 2019</ref>

MacIntyre illustrated two children's books written by other authors, ''Three Cheers for Piggy Grunter'' by Noreen Shelley (1959), and ''The Story House'' by Ruth Fenner (1960), both published in Australia by [[Angus & Robertson]]. Both were entered into the [[Children's Book Council of Australia]] [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]], which was first awarded in 1956. ''Jane Likes Pictures'' was also entered in 1960, the same year as ''Three Cheers for Piggy Grunter''.<ref name="Commins2">{{cite news |last1=Commins |first1=Kathleen M. |title=Books for Children. Awards For Year |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122774642/?terms=%22Jane%2BLikes%2BPictures%22 |access-date=20 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=9 July 1960 |page=14}}</ref><ref name="CT1961">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130716863 |title=CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK Old Favourite Wins "Book Of Year" Title |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=35 |issue=9,959 |date=8 July 1961 |access-date=21 June 2019 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> No awards for the picture book category were made in either 1960 or 1961. A report about the 1960 awards did not comment on the individual titles, but said, "the text should have literary value ... [which] is the main hurdle for entrants."<ref name="Commins2"/> It was reported in 1961 that the judges found Fenner's stories "undistinguished",<ref name="CT1961"/> although the same report commented "The pictures are gay and will be patted, and otherwise enjoyed by young children. The end papers are the best piece of illustration."<ref name="CT1961"/>

=== Picture books about conservation === MacIntyre wrote in 1978 that her books were "a sincere attempt to say something I really believe in. A straight book about Conservation might seem dull, but, as I see it, my ''Affable, Amiable Bulldozer Man'' sums up the whole subject painlessly."<ref name="20thC">{{cite book |editor1-last=Kirkpatrick |editor1-first=D. L. |title=Twentieth-century Children's Writers |date=1978 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=9781349036486 |page=811 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZT3zwEACAAJ |access-date=8 November 2025 }}</ref> Both ''Hugh's Zoo'' (1964) and ''The Affable, Amiable Bulldozer Man'' (1965) had messages about the conservation of Australian native flora and fauna.<ref name="Eldershaw"/> ''Hugh's Zoo'' tells of a boy who creates his own menagerie by catching birds and animals in the bush.<ref name="Ruddock">{{cite news |last=Ruddock |first=Loma |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105759345 |title=Animals take over |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,200 |date=6 July 1965 |access-date=21 June 2019 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> A dog helps the creatures escape; Hugh is at first distraught, but comes to see that they are happier in their own environment, with others of their kind, and can still be enjoyed there.<ref name="Ruddock"/><ref name="Commins1965">{{cite news |last1=Commins |first1=Kathleen |title=CHILDREN'S BOOKS AWARDS Melbourne writer wins top prize |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123932695/?terms=%22Hugh%27s%2BZoo%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 July 1965 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=20}}</ref> A ''Times Literary Supplement'' reviewer considered it "up to [MacIntyre's] usual high standard in being entertaining, factually based and thoroughly sensible".<ref name="Secker2">"All Sorts and Sizes: Picture Books for Young Children" by Anthea Secker, ''The Times Literary Supplement'' 26 November 1964, issue=3274, page=1064. Accessed=19 June 2019</ref>

''Hugh's Zoo'' won the [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]] in 1965.<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/><ref name="Ruddock"/><ref name="Commins1965"/> The award was controversial;<ref name="Muir"/> the judges' decision was not unanimous,<ref name="Commins1965"/> and they were disappointed by the number of entries and the overall standard.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105759344 |title=Comments |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,200 |date=6 July 1965 |access-date=21 June 2019 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> However, they felt that ''Hugh's Zoo'' was "strongly and effectively presented with honesty and sincerity."<ref name="Commins1965"/> There was also much discussion by librarians in their professional journal.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Children's Book Awards |journal=[[Australian Library Journal]]|date=1965 |volume=14 |pages=100–103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXUaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Hugh%27s+Zoo%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |publisher=Library Association of Australia |issn=0004-9670}}</ref> In the ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]'' and the ''[[Canberra Times]]'', reviewers approved of the award, saying that it was "well deserved .... intelligent and highly entertaining",<ref name="Commins1965"/> and noting that the "[v]ocabulary is not of the sieved-apple-and custard variety, but grown-up here and there; children of all ages lick their lips over new words."<ref name="Ruddock"/>

In ''The Affable, Amiable Bulldozer Man'', a bulldozer comes to clear bush, in the process destroying the homes of birds, animals and insects. One small ant bites the driver of the bulldozer, and the story has a happy ending.<ref name="Commins1966">{{cite news |last1=Commins |first1=Kathleen |title=Accent On Pictures |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122788230/?terms=%22Affable%2C%2BAmiable%2BBulldozer%2BMan%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=22 October 1966 |page=22}}</ref> [[Kathleen Commins]] in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' thought it was "sensitively told ... [with] some appreciative and gentle ridicule of the kind of places that would replace the forest."<ref name="Commins1966"/> A US reviewer, however, while recognising that destruction of forest and habitat occurred in the US as in Australia, found "the rhymes .. facile, the pictures amusing but ordinary."<ref name="Opelousas">{{cite news |title=For Young People |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/227797295/?terms=%22Affable%2C%2BAmiable%2BBulldozer%2BMan%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=Daily World |date=18 July 1965 |location=Opelousas, Louisiana, USA |page=19}}</ref> Another Australian reviewer thought that the intended audience of young readers would invest the bulldozer with "the same magical significance as the steam engine or fire engine had for their parents."<ref name="Connors">{{cite news |last=Connors |first=Lyndsay |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106955808 |title=YOUNG READERS Popular storytellers' appeal |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=41 |issue=11,580 |date=7 January 1967 |access-date=21 June 2019 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

=== Novels for children and young adults === MacIntyre received a three-year Children's Literature Fellowship from the [[Australia Council for the Arts|Australia Council]] to visit the United States from 1974 to 1976, in order to study and write in the newly emerging genre of [[young adult literature]].<ref name="AustLit"/><ref name="Dromkeen"/> She also travelled to New Guinea, Italy and Japan,<ref name="Eldershaw"/> the latter with a grant from the Australia-Japan Foundation in 1976.<ref name="AustLit"/> MacIntyre said in 1978, "At first I wrote and illustrated picture books, using words sparingly. Now less interested in how things look, and more concerned in how they seem to ''be''."<ref name="20thC"/>

''Ninji's Magic'' (1966) was MacIntyre's first full-length novel,<ref name="20thC"/> for an older age-group than her previous books,<ref name="20thC"/> and was also the first that she did not illustrate; the drawings were by Mamoru Funai.<ref name="Commins1967"/><ref name="Dugan"/><ref name="Hutchings"/> It was set in [[Papua New Guinea|New Guinea]], about a young boy from the highlands and his encounter with white people and western education.<ref name="Commins1967">{{cite news |last1=Commins |first1=Kathleen |title=New Guinea magic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122664954/?terms=%22Ninji%27s%2BMagic%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 December 1967 |location=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |page=16}}</ref><ref name="Dugan">{{cite news |last1=Dugan |first1=Dennis |title=Children's books |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122757231/?terms=%22Ninji%27s%2BMagic%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Age |date=20 January 1968 |location=Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |page=22}}</ref><ref name="Hutchings">{{cite news |last=Hutchings |first=Gwen |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107049979 |title=Double image style |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=42 |issue=11,992 |date=4 May 1968 |access-date=23 June 2019 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name="Crozier">{{cite news |last1=Crozier |first1=Mary |title=Classics and Commercials |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/259819073/?terms=%22Ninji%27s%2BMagic%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]]|date=6 October 1967 |location=London, England |page=12}}</ref><ref name="Nye">"How the Other Half Lives" by Phyllis Nye, ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 30 November 1967, issue=3431, page=1156, Accessed=22 June 2019</ref> Reviewers described the story as "absorbing";<ref name="Crozier"/> "informative, sympathetically told";<ref name="Commins1967"/> "an excellent picture of the old and the new in New Guinea".<ref name="Dugan"/> One reviewer thought that, "[a]lthough .. a sympathetic interpretation of a small boy's problems and aspirations, at times the theme seems contrived for a didactic purpose."<ref name="Hutchings"/> Another said, "a good story ... [its] primary importance is that through such stories young readers can come to understand certain common conflicts which exist in all cultures and that it is the lot of the young to know change [and] to adjust to it."<ref name="Root">{{cite journal |last1=Root |first1=Shelton R. Jr. |title=BOOKS for Children |journal=Elementary English |date=November 1967 |volume=44 |issue=7 |page=810 |publisher=[[National Council of Teachers of English]]|jstor=41386235 }}</ref>

MacIntyre's other novels were ''The Purple Mouse'' (1975), ''It looks different when you get there'' (1978), and ''A wonderful way to learn the language'' (1982). ''The Purple Mouse'' features a girl called Hatty, who, like MacIntyre herself, is deaf.<ref name="Eldershaw"/><ref name="DavidJones"/> Reviews were mixed. ''[[School Library Journal]]'' wrote "This treatment of hearing impairment shows that, given enough clichés, any problem can be solved", and suggested other novels which offered "believable characters, credible plots, and honest representations of the implications of this handicap."<ref name="Harris">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Karen |title=The Purple Mouse (Book) |journal=[[School Library Journal]]|date=1 April 1975 |volume=21 |issue=8 |page=55 |issn=0362-8930}}</ref> Another reviewer thought Hatty showed "a good deal of sensitivity and intelligence", and considered the book "particularly appropriate for adolescents who ... see themselves as misfits."<ref name="Scheinmann">"New Directions for Books for Young People" by Vivian J. Scheinmann, ''New Directions for Women'', Autumn 1975, volume 4, issue 3, p4. Accessed=19 June 2019</ref> The main character of ''It looks different when you get there'' is a student who becomes pregnant, leaves university to have the baby, and moves around trying to find a place where she belongs. One reviewer thought that "though the ending is rather facile there are some well-observed glimpses of people and different life-styles."<ref name="Schneider">{{cite news |last1=Schneider |first1=Myra |title=Problems, problems |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/259557196/?terms=%22It%2Blooks%2Bdifferent%2Bwhen%2Byou%2Bget%2Bthere%22 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=28 September 1978 |location=London, England |page=9}}</ref>

''Ninji's Magic'' and ''It looks different when you get there'' were translated into Japanese;<ref>{{cite web |title=Author:MacIntyre, Elisabeth. Language: Japanese |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AMacIntyre%2C+Elisabeth.&dblist=638&fq=ln%3Ajpn&qt=facet_ln%3A |website=WorldCat |publisher=OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. |access-date=24 June 2019}}</ref> ''Ninji's Magic'' was also translated into German.<ref>{{cite web |title=Author:MacIntyre, Elisabeth. Language:German |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AMacIntyre%2C+Elisabeth.&dblist=638&fq=ln%3Ager+%3E+ap%3A%22macintyre%2C+elisabeth%22&qt=facet_ap%3A |website=WorldCat |publisher=OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. |access-date=24 June 2019}}</ref>

=== Other work === MacIntyre also wrote radio serials<ref name="Kusko"/><ref name="20thC"/> and contributed articles<ref name="AustLit"/> about her travels, craft ideas, etc., to publications such as ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]''<ref name="Bulletin1952">{{cite journal |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Elisabeth |title=Been There Yet? The Not-So-Dead Heart |journal=The Bulletin |date=3 December 1952 |volume=73 |issue=3799 |page=27 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-525673974 |access-date=23 June 2019 |publisher=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia}}</ref> and the ''[[Australian Women's Weekly]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Elisabeth |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44020987 |title=ARTIST GOES WALKABOUT |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=19 |issue=10 |date=8 August 1951 |access-date=24 June 2019 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Elisabeth |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44021311 |title=CHRISTMAS GREETINGS |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=20 |issue=26 |date=26 November 1952 |access-date=23 June 2019 |page=35 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

MacIntyre had started drafting designs for toys before the publication of her first book.<ref name="SMH1953"/> She made several attempts to sell her toys. In 1941, she held an exhibition at the [[Macquarie Galleries]] in Sydney<ref name="GayToys"/><ref name="Patricia">{{cite news |last=Patricia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142145462 |title=SPOTLIGHT ON SOCIETY: Lady Diana Duff Cooper Enchants And Interests Us |newspaper=[[The Australasian]] |volume=CLI |issue=4,846 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=15 November 1941 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=28 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> of wheeled toys,<ref name="GayToys"/> painted toys made of wood,<ref name="GayToys"/><ref name="Patricia"/> felt and fluffy dusters,<ref name="Patricia"/> and painted nursery plaques and pictures.<ref name="Patricia"/><ref name="GayToys"/> She made many toy animals, including Ambrose Kangaroo,<ref name="Patricia"/> and other Australian animals such as emu and platypus,<ref name="GayToys"/> non-native animals including a giraffe<ref name="Patricia"/> and horses,<ref name="GayToys"/> as well as soldiers and a street cart.<ref name="GayToys"/> In the late 1960s, MacIntyre made models of Australian fauna as ornaments, starting with plastic-coated wire covered with fabric,<ref name="Currency">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51603303 |title=CURRENCY LADS |newspaper=[[Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=33 |issue=33 |date=12 January 1966 |access-date=20 June 2019 |page=39 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and then, recognising a need for "something to send overseas that was light, bright, and Australian",<ref name="Kusko"/> moulding them in plastic.<ref name="Kusko"/> She named them "Currency Lads", a play on the [[Decimalisation#Australia and New Zealand|decimal currency]] introduced in Australia in 1966, as all six coins featured Australian fauna,<ref name="Currency"/> and on the term [[Currency lads and lasses]] to refer to the first generations of people of British descent born in Australia.<ref name="Kusko"/><ref name="Currency"/> She did not have plans for marketing them, but said, "I feel I'm making a start and doing my best. If it makes someone say, 'I can do better,' and that someone does better, then it's worth while."<ref name="Kusko"/>

== Selected publications == * 1941 ''Ambrose Kangaroo'' ([[Australian Consolidated Press]])<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/> * 1944 ''Susan, Who Lives in Australia'' ([[Scribner's]], USA)<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/> * 1944 ''The Black Lamb'' (Jons Productions, Sydney)<ref name="Dromkeen"/> * 1946 ''Katherine'' (Australian version of ''Susan'', The Australian Publishing Company; revised editions in 1958 ([[Angus & Robertson]]) and 1963)<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/><ref name="SMH1946">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27909452 |title=ABOUT BOOKS "Katherine", told and pictured by Elizabeth MacIntyre |newspaper=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |issue=33,981 |date=20 November 1946 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=3 (Playtime) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name="CT1958">{{cite news |last=H.B. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103124228 |title=Australian Books For Young People |newspaper=[[Canberra Times]] |volume=33 |issue=9,614 |date=18 October 1958 |access-date=19 June 2019 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> * 1951 ''Willie's Woollies'' (Georgian House, Melbourne)<ref name="Muir"/><ref name="SMH1951talk"/><ref name="Better"/><ref name="Advertiser 1951"/><ref name="Sun1951"/> * 1954 ''Mr. Koala Bear'' (Scribner's, USA)<ref name="Ottawa1954"/><ref name="Evans2"/><ref name="Nerenberg"/><ref name="Secker"/> * 1956 'Susan and the sheep stealing', a chapter in ''Round the year story book'' (ed. P. R. Gawthorn; [[Purnell and Sons]], London) * 1959 ''Jane likes Pictures'' ([[William Collins, Sons|Collins]], London)<ref name="Muir"/><ref name="Evans"/><ref name="Commins"/> * 1964 ''Hugh's Zoo'' ([[Constable & Robinson|Constable]] Young Books, London)<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/><ref name="Ruddock"/><ref name="Commins1965"/> * 1965 ''The Affable, Amiable Bulldozer Man'' (Angus & Robertson, Sydney)<ref name="20thC"/><ref name="Commins1966"/><ref name="Opelousas"/><ref name="Connors"/> * 1966 ''Ninji's Magic'' ([[Knopf]], USA)<ref name="DavidJones"/><ref name="20thC"/><ref name="Commins1967"/><ref name="Dugan"/><ref name="Hutchings"/><ref name="Root"/><ref name="Crozier"/> * 1975 ''The Purple Mouse'' ([[Thomas Nelson (publisher)|Nelson]], USA)<ref name="Harris"/><ref name="Scheinmann"/> * 1978 ''It looks different when you get there'' ([[Hodder & Stoughton]], Sydney)<ref name="Schneider"/> * 1978 ''Ambrose kangaroo delivers the goods'' (Angus & Robertson, Sydney)<ref name="Dromkeen"/> * 1982 ''A wonderful way to learn the language'' (Hodder and Stoughton, Sydney)

== Awards == * 1955 – ''Mr. Koala Bear'', [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]]: Commended<ref name="Award1955"/> * 1965 – ''Hugh's Zoo'', [[Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book]]: Winner<ref name="Dromkeen"/><ref name="Muir"/><ref name="Ruddock"/><ref name="Commins1965"/> * 1974–1976 – Children's Literature Fellowship from the [[Australia Council for the Arts]]<ref name="AustLit"/><ref name="Dromkeen"/> * 1976 – Australia-Japan Foundation grant<ref name="AustLit"/>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ADLIB110345971&context=L&vid=SLNSW&search_scope=MOH&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US Elisabeth Macintyre Eldershaw papers at the State Library of New South Wales] * [https://canberra.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991003803069703996&context=L&vid=61ARL_CNB:61ARL_CNB&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Elisabeth%20MacIntyre&facet=rtype,include,manuscripts&mode=Basic&offset=0 Elisabeth MacIntyre Papers at the University of Canberra. National Centre for Australian Children's Literature] * [https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-214385710/listen?searchTerm=%22Elisabeth%20MacIntyre%22 Elisabeth MacIntyre interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection] * [http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/macintyre.htm Elisabeth MacIntyre papers in the de Grummond Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi]

{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Children's literature |portal3= Australia}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacIntyre, Elisabeth}} [[Category:1916 births]] [[Category:2004 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Australian women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Australian children's writers]] [[Category:20th-century Australian illustrators]] [[Category:21st-century Australian illustrators]] [[Category:Australian children's book illustrators]] [[Category:Australian comics artists]] [[Category:Australian women comics artists]] [[Category:Australian women novelists]] [[Category:Australian women children's writers]] [[Category:Australian women illustrators]] [[Category:Writers from Sydney]] [[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]] [[Category:National Art School alumni]] [[Category:People from Bowral]] [[Category:Deaf artists]] [[Category:Australian artists with disabilities]] [[Category:Deaf writers]] [[Category:Australian advertising artists and illustrators]]