Joyce Nicholson

Who is Joyce Nicholson?

Joyce Nicholson was an Australian author, business woman and a significant contributor to an Australian political organisation, the Women's Electoral Lobby.

The daughter of Publisher D.W. Thorpe, Nicholson was born in Melbourne and educated at Methodist Ladies' College and the University of Melbourne. She was active in the women's movement as one of the founding members of the Woman's Electoral Lobby and Sisters Publishing. She was a significant influence in the Australian publishing industry for many years as managing director, and later sole owner, of D.W. Thorpe Pty Ltd. She authored over 25 books, many of them dealing with children and women. She married Harvey Nicholson and had four children: Peter, Hilary, Wendy, and Michael.

Joyce sponsored a major collection of books by and about Australian women, the Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Collection at Melbourne University. It includes rare nineteenth century material, as well as scarce twentieth-century political ephemera. The Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Hall of Fame Award is sponsored by Thorpe Bowker and presented periodically to a designer whose body of work has made a significant contribution to the standards of book design in Australia.