Lyndsay Malin, Stories of Faerieland (1931)
Although not about Subiaco this is an interesting story about an inspiring woman author Lyndsay Malin from the children’s page in the Daily News called ‘A Page for the Boys and Girls in Western Australia’ in 1931.
Lyndsay wrote a book called the ‘Stories of Faerieland’. Lyndsay had not been able to use her hands and feet since an accident when she was a baby. She was educated at home by her mother, a school teacher.
Lyndsay’s book ‘Stories of Faerieland was illustrated by May Voke and published in 1931. Lyn also wrote poetry which was published in local newspapers in Broken Hill in 1932.
In 1942 the Australian Broadcasting Commission recorded three of her stories about animals and birds in the Australian bush the kangaroo, kookaburra and magpie. In an interview with the News newspaper in Adelaide Lyndsay talked about her love of the Australian bush... “Lyn loved the bush so much that they built a house at Blackwood, with low windows and lots of light, so that Lyn could always see out into their garden...”
The articles are from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Daily News, 24 October 1931.
A WEAVER OF DREAMS
The Story of Lyndsay Malin
Miracles, that seemed so common and awe-inspiring in the middle ages, are rare nowadays. We know of miracles of science and nature, and miracles of faith. So when we are told that Lyndsay Malin, who has not been able to use either her hands or her feet since an accident which happened to her when she was baby has written a book, we feel here is a miracle indeed.
Lyndsay, whose picture is shown here, has not used her years of inaction in bitterness and resentment against her unhappy fate. She has lain there through the days and years, thinking without making thoughts her master, dreaming without making dreams her aim, for she has written seven fairy stories. Her mother has written them down for her, and they are to be published under the title of 'Fairy Lands.'
Lyndsay lives with her parents in Lower Mitcham, In Victoria, and is 18 now. Since her father's illness prevented him from continuing his work Lyndsay's plucky mother has gone back to teach school. But it is a loving and a happy family. Lyn's mother says that they get much enjoyment from each other's society.
“Lyn is the sweetest-natured girl”, she says, “and she and I have many tastes in common. She is most unselfish, and it is a labor of love to attend to her needs.” Lyn lies on her face to read, turning pages with her chin, and reads constantly. When she was tiny she colored pictures, holding the brush in her mouth. Her father was in charge of a pumping station on a pretty stretch of the Murray when Lyn was ten, and her first story was composed then in the atmosphere of the romance and poetry of the great river. Her sunny temper and bright smile are well known and she loves a joke. She is fond of Dickens' books, Shakesoeare's plays and the stories of Mary Webb.
Of course, Lyndsay is excited about seeing her work in print. It is to be illustrated in black and white by Miss May Voke.
Barrier Miner, 12 December 1931
"STORIES OF FAERIELAND"
"Stories of Faerieland" is a book of fairy stories written by an Adelaide girl Lyn Malin, illustrated by May Voke, and published in Adelaide by The Hassell Press. The author has the true fairy mind, and her stories will delight the children for whom they are intended, and will also be read with sympathetic interest by plenty of adults who are not yet too old to re-member the pleasure with which they listened to the telling of fairy tales when they were children themselves too young to read; and how, when they could read, devoured everything that came within reach that told about fairies, dragons, princesses, princes, witches, and all good and evil spirits on the earth, above it, or under it.
But this particular fairy book has special interest as being the remark-able work of a wonderful girl who is not only unable to walk, but who has never been able even to feed herself. When little more than an infant she would be placed on the floor surrounded by pictures which she would absorb as the books containing them lay open. She could not turn the leaves herself, so when anyone entered the room she would say "Open," and thus fresh pages would be opened for her to study. As she grew older, though still as helpless as ever, she was assisted by a companion, to whom she told the stories that are here printed, and who wrote them down as dictated. She is now 18 years old, but some of the stories were composed when she was no more than 14. Her mother, Mrs. Malin, is a daughter of Mr. Hendry, formerly well known in Broken Hill, and at one time Mayor of the town, so the book has particular interest for Broken Hill people. Mrs. Malin was formerly a school teacher, and the child had the advantage due to the circumstance that her mother was a trained instructor. The price of the book is 2/6.
Barrier Miner, 3 September 1932
The Paralysed Poet
This poem is the work of Lyn Malin, the crippled girl who has been so paralysed from birth that she can only sit up supported in a chair, and who is unable to hold anything in her hand with which to write. She has never-theless a remarkable intellect, and she dictates her compositions to her mother, who is a teacher, and who has trained her wonderfully. The poem speaks for itself.
AUTUMN DAY
(By Lyn Mahn)
On hill, and grassy paddock
Frost glimmers. silver bright,
And through the purple veil of morn
The sun weaves misty light;
Showering with gleaming sun dust
The pine trees dim and old,
And changing ragged gum trees
To radiant towers of gold
Softly the quiet shadows
steal along the grass,
And bathed in mellow sunlight
The darting sawllows pass:
Slow-dropping through the silent air
Fall faded autumn leaves,
And dark against the sapphire sky
Their watching mother grieves
Flame and rosy banners float
Over the western skies,
As crowned in evening's royal gold
Daylight homeward flies.
Then swiftly travels purple night
Across the east's dim plain,
And gently wraps the quiet hills
With dreaming peace again.
Barrier Miner, 26 November 1932.
The Crippled Girl
Poet
The author of the following poem, "September Frolic," is Lyn Malin, the girl poet already referred to in "The Miner," who has been an invalid from birth. Her mother a Broken Hill girl before her marriage is a daughter (Bessie) of the late Mr. Alec Hendry, an ex-Mayor of Broken Hill. She was a teacher at the Burke Ward School, and now, owing to the illness of her husband, Mrs. Malin is a teacher at the Lower Mitcham School at Unley. The whole of Lyn's education has been received from her mother, as she cannot move from her chair, and cannot use her hands, even for writing or turning the leaves of a book when reading:
"SEPTEMBER FROLIC"
(Lyn Malin.)
O spring has come a'laughing;
'neath silken tint of rainwashed sky;
Wild breezes pipe her welcome,
echoeing loud and high;
While rain and sunny weather, weav-
ing secretly together,
Have spread a dainty tapestry all
green across the land.
Cloud showers throw a misty cloak
of purple o'er the hills,
And leafy little gardens blow a peal of
daffodils;
To join the silver laughter
Of rain, swift-rushing after,
The palely glistening sunbeams who
fly before their feet.
Brave winds have swept the clouds
aside,
And freed the sunbeams shining band;
To sail their fairy ships of light all
golden through the land.
Till from her green and lacey gown,
Each slender tree maid showers down,
Rainjewels for the springtide, as gay
she passes by.
News, 18 August 1942.
Crippled Girl's Bush Stories To Be Broadcast
In a gay little house at Blackwood lives a crippled girl who spends her life weaving stories. This girl, Lyn Malin, has not the use of arms, and speech is difficult for her. But she has courage and creative ability. Three of her Australian bush stories will be broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission on Friday.
Unable to attend school, she has been taught all she knows by her mother, Mrs. B. S. Malin, a teacher at the Blackwood Primary School.
She has been creating stories for 15 vears now dictating her fancies to 16-year-old Valerile Learney. Her tales are mostly about her surroundings. One is about a little china dancer on the living-room table. Those to be broadcast on Friday are "How the Magpie Found His Song," "Why the Kookaburra Laughs," and "The Obliging Kangaroo."
LOVES BUSH
Lyn and her mother used to live at Mitcham. Lyn loved the bush so much that they built a house at Blackwood, with low windows and lots of light, so that Lyn could always see out into their garden.
She has written poems, too, and her book, "Stories From Fairy Land," was published when she was 18. She has enough material for another book now, too. She's a keen reader, preferring old writers and painters to modern ones. Her favorite author is Dickens, her favorite poet Shelly and her favorite painting the Valasquez "Maids of Honor," of which she, unfortunately cannot find a print.
Her ambitions? "I want to earn enough in writing to be independent and to travel," says she.
