Pamela Allen pictorial material, papers and other material

fonds

1974-2019

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Watercolours, Prints, Textual Records, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Moving Images

9650383

approximately 1299 watercolours (53 boxes)
922 drawings (8 boxes) - pen, ink and pencil
8.8 metres of textual material (55 boxes) includes clippings, photographs and drawings
33 prints (1 box)
14 slides - colour - 35 mm
4 negatives

Pamela Allen, award-winning children’s author and illustrator, was born in New Zealand in 1934 and moved to Sydney with her husband and two children in 1977. Allen lived most of her adult life in Sydney and produced almost all of her published work whilst living in Sydney.

Renowned children’s book editor, Anne Bower Ingram, suggested at an early stage that Pamela Allen should write and illustrate her own children’s book. The resulting work was Mr Archimedes’ Bath, published by William Collins in 1980. Mr Archimedes’ Bath won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature in 1980 (NSW Premier’s Literary Award) and was commended by the Children’s Book Council of Australia in the category of Picture Book of the Year in 1981. Pamela Allen then won the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award for Who Sank the Boat? (1983) and Bertie and the Bear (1984). She is the first illustrator to have won this award two years running and has been shortlisted for the award six times.

Allen has written and illustrated fifty two children’s books and illustrated eight written by other authors (drawings for five of the titles have not been included in the archive). Allen’s work was acknowledged internationally in 1984 and 2006 when she received the Honour Diploma for Illustration from the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) for her titles Who Sank the Boat? and Grandpa and Thomas.

Pamela Allen has received many awards and commendations including six Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards, two New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, two International Board on Books for Young People Diploma for Illustration (IBBY), the Margaret Mahy Medal, New Zealand’s most prestigious award for children’s literature, and most recently The Gaylene Gordon Award for a Much Loved Book from the Children's Literature Foundation of New Zealand.

Reference:
Library correspondence file

See three series records attached to this record.