Mimie and Wog

 Hoppy called out 'Open your eyes', and there they were in a wonderful strange country – very wild with lovely flowers and such a blue sky. (Mimie & Wog [unpublished] by May Gibbs, 1910. MLMSS 2049/8/19)

May Gibbs' unpublished manuscript Mimie and Wog: their adventures in Australia was written under the pseudonym Silvia Hood in 1910. The story follows a little girl, her dog, a flying kangaroo called ‘Hoppy’, and their adventures in the Australian bush where they encounter all manner of native animals, a roaring bushfire and Aboriginal people. The Australian setting however, was rejected by English publishers as lacking audience appeal.

> See entire unpublished manuscript for Mimie and Wog, 1910, by May Gibbs, via the Library's catalogue  

Undeterred, May reprised the characters of Mimie and Wog, removing them from the Australian bush and depositing them in Edwardian London in a fantasy world inhabited by chimney pot people, scraggy cats and fog-bound streets. By transferring them to an English setting, May successfully attracted the attention of publishers both in London and New York.

Re-titled About Us and published in London in 1912, May Gibbs' first published book remains largely unknown to Australian readers more familiar with her trademark gumnut babies.