Isabel Mary Mitchell

Isabel Mary Mitchell MBE (1893–1973)[1] was an Australian known for her services to literature.[2] She went blind in the 1940s and wrote about this in "Uncharted country [braille] : aspects of life in blindness."[3] She wrote eight novels after losing her sight through the use of dictaphone and typewriter.[4]

Mitchell also wrote three detective novels[1] under the name Josephine Plain.[5] The Secret of the Sandbank was first published in the Melbourne afternoon daily newspaper The Herald in instalments.[6]

Mitchell was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 for service to literature.[7]

Selected works

• Mitchell, Mary (1934), A Warning to Wantons:A Fantastic Romance Setting Forth the Not Undeserved but Awful Fate Which Befell a Minx, Doubleday Doran
• Mitchell, Mary (1935), The Secret of the Sandbank, Thornton Butterworth
• Mitchell, Mary (1935), The Secret of the Snows, Thornton Butterworth
• Plain, Josephine (1936), The Pazenger Problem, London Thornton Butterworth Ltd

Family

She was the daughter of Edward Fancourt Mitchell.[8] She was the sister of Janet Charlotte Mitchell and Agnes Eliza Fraser Mitchell, who wrote as Nancy Adams.[9]

References

1. Australian Dictionary of Biography
2. SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, IST JANUARY 1970
3. National Library of Australia Trove
4. Described and Captioned Media Program
5. Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 133.
6. "NEW THRILLING DETECTIVE STORY -- FIRST INSTALMENT BEGINS TODAY". The Herald. No. 17, 465. Victoria, Australia. 6 May 1933. p. 23. Retrieved 11 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
7. Australia list: "No. 45000". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1969. pp. 35–40.
8. Australian Dictionary of Biography for Edward Fancourt Mitchell
9. "Nancy Adams". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 29 March 2023.