Anne Godden's first job as an editor was with the legal publishers, Butterworths. Almost fifty years later, she retired from the publishing industry when she and Al Knight sold their independent Hyland House to Michael Shoo in 1999 (interview with L. Poland, 2002).
Anne Godden joined Thomas Nelson in the 1950s and worked in Edinburgh, London, Kenya and Nigeria before immigrating to Australian to work for Thomas Nelson (Al Knight, cited in Weekly Book Newsletter, 25 February 2004). During her time at Thomas Nelson (Australia), Anne Godden was Managing Editor (1967-1976) and Publishing Director (1971-1976) (interview with L. Poland, 2002). Together with Al Knight she founded Hyland House in 1977 where they developed an eclectic list of pet books, gardening books and Australian fiction, including Dorothy Porter's bestselling The Monkey's Mask (1994).
Anne Godden was an early publisher of Black and Indigenous authors in Australia -- 'we just enjoy doing it' -- and she supported the establishment of the Indigenous-owned press, Magabala Books (interview with L. Poland, 1997). She was an especially passionate advocate of editing as a profession, and of training for editors. In the late 1960s, she implemented an editorial training program at Thomas Nelson Australia (Nerissa Greenfield, interview with L. Poland, 2002). Notably, too, Godden employed two of Australia's best known editors and publishers in the later years of their careers. In 1970s, while at Nelson, she employed Barbara Ramsden on a freelance basis after her retirement from MUP, and in 1973 she employed Beatrice Davis when she was dismissed from Angus & Robertson. (L. Poland, 'Out of Type: Women in Publishing in Australia, 1931-1973', MA thesis, Monash University, 2002.)
Friends, authors, colleagues and pets were invited to her funeral on Thursday 26 February 2004 at Chewton, Victoria. (Weekly Book Newsletter, 25 February 2004).
