The Shelf Life of Zora Cross

Abstract

Zora Cross (1890–1964) is considered a minor literary figure, but 100 years ago she was one of Australia’s best-known authors. Her book of poetry Songs of Love and Life (1917) sold thousands of copies during the First World War and met with rapturous reviews. She was one of the few writers of her time to take on subjects like sex and childbirth, and is still recognised for her poem Elegy on an Australian Schoolboy (1921), written after her brother was killed in the war. Zora Cross wrote an early history of Australian literature in 1921 and profiled women authors for the Australian Woman’s Mirror in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She corresponded with prominent literary figures such as Ethel Turner, Mary Gilmore and Eleanor Dark and drew vitriol from Norman Lindsay. This thesis presents new ways of understanding Zora Cross beyond a purely literary assessment, and argues that she made a significant contribution to Australian juvenilia, publishing history, war history, and literary history.