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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
{{
citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link) pp.68-78.
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
{{
citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link) pp.68-78.