{{Short description|Australian poet, novelist, journalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Zora Cross | image = Zora Cross.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Zora Bernice May Cross | birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|05|18|df=yes}} | birth_place = Eagle Farm, Queensland, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1964|01|22|1890|05|18|df=yes}} | death_place = Glenbrook, New South Wales, Australia | other_names = Bernice May, Rosa Carmen | education = Ipswich Girls' Grammar School<br>Sydney Girls' High School<br>Burwood Superior Public School | alma_mater = Sydney Teachers' College | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Stuart Smith|11 March 1911|10 September 1922|reason=div.}} * {{marriage|David Wright|1923|February 5, 1928|reason=died}} }} | children = 3 | occupation = poet and novelist | known_for = ''Songs of Love and Life'' | parents = Ernest William Cross (accountant) and Mary Louisa Eliza Ann, nee Skyring | website = }}
'''Zora Bernice May Cross''' (18 May 1890 – 22 January 1964) was an Australian poet, best-selling novelist and journalist.
==Life== Cross was born on 18 May 1890 at Eagle Farm, Brisbane, to Sydney-born accountant Ernest William Cross and Mary Louisa Eliza Ann Cross.<ref>{{Cite book|url = https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cross-zora-bernice-may-5828|title = Cross, Zora Bernice May (1890–1964)|last = Green|first = Dorothy| chapter=Zora Bernice May Cross (1890–1964) |publisher = National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|location = Canberra}}</ref> Cross published and was known for her serialised novels, books of poems and children's verse and inherited her love for literature from both her parents. She was educated at Ipswich Girls' Grammar School, Burwood Public School, Sydney Girls' High School and then Sydney Teachers' College from 1909 to 1910. As a child Cross was a prolific contributor to the Children's Corner in the ''Australian Town and Country Journal'', where she attracted the attention of the editor Ethel Turner, who became a significant friend and mentor throughout Cross's writing career.<ref name=":0" />
Cross combined her teaching career with writing and acting, including tours with Cherry Abraham's Comedy Costume Company in Queensland and with J. C. Williamson's theatre company.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Shelf Life of Zora Cross|last=Perkins|first=Cathy|publisher=Monash University Publishing|year=2019|isbn=9781925835533|location=Australia}}</ref> On 11 March 1911, she married fellow actor Stuart Smith but later refused to live with him. The marriage was dissolved on 10 September 1922. In September 1914 she gave birth to a son, Normand (later known as Teddy), at Lauriston Private Hospital, Mosman, but no father was listed on the birth certificate. She taught for three years and then worked as a journalist for ''The Boomerang'', and subsequently as a freelance writer.<ref name="Adelaide">{{Citation | author1=Adelaide, Debra | title=Australian women writers : a bibliographic guide | date=1988 | publisher=Pandora | isbn=978-0-86358-148-9 |page=42}}</ref>
By this time Cross had formed a lasting relationship with the writer David McKee Wright,<ref>{{cite web |title=Old Qld poetry – Zora Cross |url=http://www.oldqldpoetry.com/index.php/zora-cross |website=oldqldpoetry.com |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> whom she married in 1923. They lived in the Blue Mountains village of Glenbrook where they had two daughters, Davidina and Maeve (known as April).
Cross Street in the Canberra suburb of Cook is named in her honour.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236924141|title=Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1972|date=1976-04-13|work=Australian Government Gazette. Periodic (National : 1974–1977)|access-date=2020-01-11|pages=1}}</ref>
== Work == In 1916 Cross submitted her first novel, on an Aboriginal theme but the publisher refused to publish this work. That same year a book of poems, ''A Song of Mother Love,'' was published.
In 1917 Cross published ''Songs of Love and Life'', some of which had already appeared in ''The Bulletin'', which was highly influential in Australian culture and politics until after the First World War, and was then noted for its nationalist, pro-labour, and pro-republican writing. This book and her book of similar poems, ''The Lilt of Life'' in 1918, both published by Angus & Robertson, were an expression of her love for David McKee Wright. ''Songs of Love and Life'' attracted widespread attention because of its erotic content and sold out in three days.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kale |first1=Neha |title=The forgotten erotic sonnets of Zora Cross |url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/the-forgotten-erotic-sonnets-of-zora-cross-20191029-p535fy.html |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=25 November 2019 |language=en |date=1 November 2019}}</ref>
In 1918 Cross wrote the children's verse ''The City of Riddle-mee-ree'' (1918), illustrated by Olive Crane, and then the more sombre ''Elegy on an Australian Schoolboy'' (1921), in memory of her 19-year-old soldier brother, John Skyring Cross.
Her 1924 book ''Daughters of the Seven Mile'' illustrated her awareness of developing social and economic stresses in Australia.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Cross, Zora | title=Daughters of the Seven Mile : the love story of an Australian woman | date=1924 | publisher=Hutchinson | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8503241 | access-date=25 November 2019 }}</ref>
Cross wrote on subjects controversial at the time such as sex, childbirth, Aboriginal communities and the effects of war on women who are left behind.
As "Bernice May", "Rosa Carmen" and "Daisy M.", Cross contributed regularly in the 1930s to the ''Australian Women's Mirror''.<ref name="Adelaide" /> As Bernice May she wrote a significant series of interviews with contemporary Australian women writers.<ref name=":0" />
In later years she drew on a lifetime interest in Ancient Rome and Julius Caesar. Her novel ''The Victor'' was serialised in the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' in 1933 and received favourable reviews.
Throughout her life Zora supported herself and her children by acting, teaching and as a freelance journalist. The Commonwealth Literary Fund, (precursor to the Australia Council for the Arts) prompted by the Fellowship of Australian Writers, awarded her a pension.<ref name=":0" />
==Bibliography==
===Novels=== * ''Daughters of the Seven Mile,'' London: Hutchinson (1924)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25537925 |title=Zora Cross |newspaper=The Queenslander |issue=5914 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=7 June 1924 |access-date=25 November 2019 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= ''Daughters of the Seven Mile'' (Hutchinson 1924) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/297646|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''The Lute-Girl of Rainyvale'', London: Hutchinson (1925)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''The Lute-Girl of Rainyvale''(Hutchinson 1925) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1594930|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''Sons of the Seven Mile'', ''Sydney Mail'' (1927)<ref>{{cite web|title=''Sons of the Seven Mile'' |publisher= Sydney Mail |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers?l-advtitle=703&keyword=zora%20cross&keyword.phrase=sons%20of%20the%20seven%20mile&date.from=1927-02-09&date.to=1927-11-23&sortBy=dateAsc&startPos=0|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''Moonstone Luck'', ''Sydney Morning Herald'' (1930) * ''The Victor'', ''Sydney Morning Herald'' (1933) * ''This Hectic Age'', Sydney: London Book Co. (1944)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''This Hectic Age'' (London Book Co 1944) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/33565|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> also published as ''Night Side of Sydney''<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Night Side of Sydney'' (London Book Co 195?) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2889110|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref>
===Poetry collections=== * ''A Song of Mother Love'' (1916)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''A Song of Mother Love'' (Carter-Watson Co 1916) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2978926|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''Songs of Love and Life'' (1917)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70293139 |title=Zora Cross |newspaper=The Central Queensland Herald |volume=2 |issue=99 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=19 November 1931 |access-date=25 November 2019 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= ''Songs of Love and Life'' (Tyrell's 1917) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2978926|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''The Lilt of Life'' (1918)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''The Lilt of Life'' (Angus & Robertson 1918) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1749225|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''The City of Riddle-Me-Ree'' (1918)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''The City of Riddle-Me-Ree'' (Angus & Robertson 1918) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2139025|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref> * ''Elegy on an Australian Schoolboy'', Sydney: Angus & Robertson (1921)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Elegy on an Australian Schoolboy'' (Angus & Robertson 1921) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4290|access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref>
===Lyrics=== ''Dream travel two-part song'' (1937)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Steele, J. A. (James A.) | author2=Cross, Zora, 1890-1964 | title=Dream travel two-part song / words by Zora Cross; music by J.A. Steele | journal=Allan's Part-songs | date=1937 | publisher=Allan & Co | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/237359955 | access-date=25 November 2019 }}</ref>
=== Non-fiction === ''An Introduction to the Study of Australian Literature'': Teachers' College Press (1922)<ref>{{cite web|title= ''An Introduction to the Study of Australian Literature'' (Teachers' College Press 1922) |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/891205 |access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Zora Cross}} * {{Librivox author |id=15078}} * Dorothy Green, 'Cross, Zora Bernice May (1890–1964)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cross-zora-bernice-may-5828/text9897, published first in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, (MUP), 1981
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Zora}} Category:1890 births Category:1964 deaths Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:20th-century Australian women novelists Category:Australian women poets Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:20th-century Australian women poets Category:20th-century Australian journalists Category:People educated at Sydney Girls High School Category:The Australian Worker