Title: The shelf life of Zora Cross /
Authors: Perkins, Cathy,
Year: 2020
Subjects: Cross, Zora,; Cross, Zora,; Women poets, Australian Biography.; Women poets, Australian
Abstract: Australian poet and journalist Zora Cross caused a sensation in 1917 with her book Songs of Love and Life. Here was a young woman, who looked like a Sunday school teacher, celebrating sexual passion in a provocative series of sonnets. She was hailed as a genius, and many expected her to endure as a household name alongside Shakespeare and Rossetti. While Cross's fame didn't last, she kept writing through financial hardship, personal tragedies and two world wars, producing a remarkable body of work. Her verse, prose and correspondence with the likes of Ethel Turner, George Robertson (of Angus & Robertson) and Mary Gilmore place Zora Cross among the key personalities of Australia's literary world in the early twentieth century. The Shelf Life of Zora Cross draws on these rich sources to reveal the life of a neglected writer and intriguing person.
Contents: Wildest piece of humanity : Ethel Turner -- Lone hand : Bertram Stevens -- Sting of ecstasy : Norman Lindsay -- The great and shadowy goal : George Robertson -- A spoonful of blood : John Skyring Cross -- Perfect hell : Rebecca Wiley -- Precious burden : David McKee Wright -- Nothing is wasted : Bernice May -- Salt of life : John Le Gay Brereton -- Even if the doing fall to dust : Mary Gilmore.