for David McKee Wright. Songs of Love and Life attracted widespread attention because of its erotic content and sold out in three days. In 1918 Zora also wrote the children's verse The City of Riddle-mee-ree (1918), 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. Zora wrote about controversial subjects for 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, Zora contributed regularly in the 1930s to the Australian Women's Mirror. As Bernice May she wrote a significant series of interviews with contemporary Australian women writers. In later years Zora 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. Bibliography Novels Daughters of the Seven Mile, London: Hutchinson (1924) The Lute-Girl of Rainyvale, London: Hutchinson(1925) Sons of the Seven Mile, London: Hutchinson (1927) Moonstone Luck, Sydney Morning Herald (1930) The Victor, Sydney Morning Herald (1933) This Hectic Age, Sydney: London Book Co.(1944) also published as Night Side of Sydney Poetry collections A Song of Mother Love (1916) Songs of Love and Life (1917) The Lilt of Life (1918) The City of Riddle-Me-Ree (1918) Poetry Elegy on an Australian Schoolboy, Sydney: Angus & Robertson (1921) Lyrics Dream travel two-part song (1937) Non-Fiction An Introduction to the Study of Australian Literature, Sydney: Teachers' College Press (1922) References External links Dorothy Green, 'Cross, Zora Bernice May (1890–1964)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cross-zora-bernice-may-5828/text9897, published first in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, (MUP), 1981 1890 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers Australian women poets Australian women novelists 20th-century Australian poets 20th-century Australian journalists People educated at Sydney Girls High School