AustLit

McVitty attended Northcote High School and Toorak Teacher's College, embarking on a career as a teacher and school librarian. He spent five years overseas, teaching in the United Kingdom and Canada from 1956 to 1960. In 1962 McVitty completed a teacher-librarianship course at Melbourne Teacher's College and spent the next six years as a teacher-librarian at Elwood Central School before being appointed to the staff at the Library School at Melbourne Teachers' College. He became Senior Lecturer in Children's Literature and eventually Acting Head of Department during his fifteen years there. During this period he was awarded an Arts degree, Library Association of Australia Registration and a Diploma of Education.

In 1985 McVitty set up Walter McVitty Books with his wife Lois to publish children's books. The venture flourished due to high editorial, design and production standards and an emphasis on quality writing and illustration. His books won a number of design and literary awards in Australia and overseas and Walter McVitty Books titles appeared in fourteen different languages. McVitty wrote major critical works on Australian children's literature. In 1991 McVitty donated his research collection on children's literature of over 2,000 books to the Lu Rees Archives at the University of Canberra. In 1995 McVitty was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the arts. Walter McVitty Books was sold to Lothian Books in 1998 and McVitty retired to Queensland and then Victoria.

(Source: McVitty, Walter, A Life In Children's Books, 2004.)