Dymphna Cusack
Dymphna Cusack | |
---|---|
![]() Dymphna Cusack, 1947 | |
Born | 21 September 1902 |
Died | 19 October 1981 | (aged 79)
Nationality | Australian |
Alma mater | University of Sydney |
Occupation(s) | Author, playwright |
Ellen Dymphna Cusack AM (21 September 1902 – 19 October 1981) was an Australian writer and playwright.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Born in Wyalong, New South Wales, Cusack was educated at Saint Ursula's College, Armidale, New South Wales[2] and graduated from the University of Sydney with an honours degree in arts and a diploma in Education. She worked as a teacher until she retired in 1944 for health reasons. Her illness was confirmed in 1978 as multiple sclerosis.[1] She died at Manly, New South Wales on 19 October 1981.
Career
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Dymphna_Cusack_Sydney_Writers_Walk_plaque.jpg/220px-Dymphna_Cusack_Sydney_Writers_Walk_plaque.jpg)
Cusack wrote twelve novels (two of which were collaborations), eleven plays,[3] three travel books, two children's books and one non-fiction book. Her collaborative novels were Pioneers on Parade (1939) with Miles Franklin, and Come In Spinner (1951) with Florence James.[4]
The play Red Sky at Morning was filmed in 1944, starring Peter Finch.[5] The biography Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid, to which Cusack wrote an introduction and helped the author write, was produced as the film Caddie in 1976. The novel Come In Spinner was produced as a television series by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1989, and broadcast in March 1990.[6]
Family
[edit]Her younger brother, John, was also an author, writing the war novel They Hosed Them Out under the pseudonym John Beede, which was first published in 1965; an expanded edition under the author's real name, John Bede Cusack, was published in 2012 by Wakefield Press, edited and annotated by Robert Brokenmouth.[7]
Activism
[edit]Cusack advocated social reform and described the need for reform in her writings. She contributed to the world peace movement during the Cold War era as an antinuclear activist.[1] She and her husband Norman Freehill were members of the Communist Party and they left their entire estates to the Party in their wills.[8]
Contribution and recognition
[edit]Cusack was a foundation member of the Australian Society of Authors in 1963. She had refused an Order of the British Empire,[1] but was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1981 for her contribution to Australian literature.[9]
In 2011, Cusack was one of 11 authors, including Elizabeth Jolley and Manning Clark, to be permanently recognised by the addition of brass plaques at the Writers' Walk, Sydney.[10]
Plays
[edit]- Safety First, 1927
- Shallow Cups, 1933
- Anniversary, 1935.[11] The play won first prize for an Anzac Fellowship competition for a play on a war theme. Cusack researched it in part on papers of her uncle who died at Gallipoli.[12][13] The play premiered at the Sydney Conservatorium.[14] It was performed again the following year.[15] In the play, an old digger meets the ghosts of his comrades.
- Red Sky at Morning, performed 1935; published 1942
- Morning Sacrifice, 1943
- Comets Soon Pass, 1943
- Call Up Your Ghosts, with Miles Franklin, 1945
- Stand Still Time, 1946
- Pacific Paradise, 1955
Novels
[edit]- Jungfrau (1936)
- Pioneers on Parade (1939) with Miles Franklin
- Come In Spinner (1951) with Florence James
- Say No to Death (1951)
- Southern Steel (1953)
- Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid (1953) [Introduction only]
- The Sun in Exile (1955)
- Heatwave in Berlin (1961)
- Picnic Races (1962)
- Black Lightning (1964)
- The Sun is Not Enough (1967)
- The Half-Burnt Tree (1969)
- A Bough in Hell (1971)
Radio plays
[edit]- His Honor Comes to Tea
- Lure of the Inland Sea (1945)
- Mary Reibey (1947)
- Shoulder the Sky
- Exit
- The Golden Girls
- Spartacus
Nonfiction
[edit]- Chinese Women Speak. Angus & Robertson. Sydney. 1958.
- Holidays Among the Russians. Heinemann. London. 1964.
- Illyria Reborn. Heinemann. London. 1966.
- Mary Gilmore A Tribute. Australasian Book Society. London. 1965.
- A Window in the Dark. National Library of Australia. Canberra. 1991.
Children's literature
[edit]- Kanga-Bee and Kanga-Bo. Botany House. Sydney. 1945.
- Four Winds and a Family with Florence James. Shakespeare Head Press. London. 1947.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Marilla North (2007), "Cusack, Ellen Dymphna (Nell) (1902–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 18 May 2015
- ^ [1] Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, middlemiss.org; retrieved 22 March 2008.
- ^ Croft, Julian, 1941-; Bedson, Jack; Campbell Howard Collection; University of New England. Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies; Dixson Library (University of New England) Australian plays in manuscript (1993), The Campbell Howard annotated index of Australian plays 1920-1955 / compiled and edited by Jack Bedson and Julian Croft, Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies, University of New England.
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) pp.68-78. - ^ Spender (1988) p. 219
- ^ "Red Sky at Morning (1944)". IMDb. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
- ^ IMDB – Come In Spinner (1990)
- ^ Cusack, J.B. (2012), They Hosed Them Out, Wakefield Press, ISBN 9781743051061
- ^ Peter Coleman, "Memento Moscow", Weekend Australian, 16–17 January 1999, Review, p. 10
- ^ "It's an Honour – 26 January 1981". Australian Government. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
- ^ "Tribute to Literary Greats on Sydney Writers’ Walk", 24 October 2011; retrieved 10 April 2012.
- ^ Marilla North, 'Cusack, Ellen Dymphna (Nell) (1902–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cusack-ellen-dymphna-nell-12385/text22259, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 14 March 2024.
- ^ "YOUNG WOMAN'S FINE PLAY". Daily Standard. No. 6948. Queensland, Australia. 25 April 1935. p. 9. Retrieved 14 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Women in the World", The Australian woman's mirror., 11 (41 (3 September 1935)), Sydney: The Bulletin Newspaper, nla.obj-572096208, retrieved 14 March 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "ANZAC PLAY FROM WOMAN'S PEN". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. 5, no. 59. New South Wales, Australia. 25 April 1935. p. 7. Retrieved 14 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "ANZAC EVE FESTIVAL". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 668. New South Wales, Australia. 18 April 1936. p. 12. Retrieved 14 March 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
Sources
[edit]- Dymphna Cusack bibliography
- North, Marilla. (2007) "Cusack, Ellen Dymphna (Nell) (1902–1981)". Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press
- Spender, Dale (1988) Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers, London: Pandora
Further reading
[edit]- 1902 births
- 1981 deaths
- Australian biographers
- Australian women novelists
- Members of the Order of Australia
- University of Sydney alumni
- Writers from New South Wales
- 20th-century Australian novelists
- Australian women biographers
- Australian women dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Australian women writers
- 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century biographers