Dora Wilcox
{{Short description|New Zealand-born Australian poet and playwright}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Dora Wilcox (born Mary Theodora Wilcox, 24 November 1873 – 14 December 1953), was a New Zealand and Australian poet and playwright.
Biography
Wilcox was born in Christchurch, New Zealand to William Henry Wilcox and his wife Mary Elizabeth, née Washbourne.{{Cite book|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wilcox-mary-theodora-joyce-7805|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Holden|first=Robert|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|location=Canberra}} She was educated privately and at Canterbury College, before spending three years teaching in Armidale, New South Wales. She had been publishing work in periodicals, including the Sydney Bulletin, since the age of twelve, and made the move to Australia according to an "old friend" and obituary writer "to seek her literary fortune".{{Cite journal|last=Hooper|first=F Earle|year=1954|title=Dora Wilcox|journal=Southerly|volume=15|pages=63–5}}
She spent the next two decades in Europe, initially touring with her mother. While overseas she published two books of verse with George Allen (all the while publishing many poems and articles in the periodical press) and married Professor Paul Hamelius of the University of Liège. After Professor Hamelius's death in 1922 she returned to Australia. She had by that time met and married the Melbourne writer and art critic William Moore (1868–1937), with whom she later set up home in Sydney. Following his death, she became his literary executrix.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17478479|title=Australian Dramatists|date=1938-06-23|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=3}}
She continued to publish verse, many articles of historical and literary interest and several plays which were produced and won prizes. Her poem "Australia in Luce" was selected to commemorate the opening of Parliament at Canberra in 1927,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78742022|title=Mainly About People|date=1927-05-13|work=Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=10}} and "Anzac Day" was set to music by Alfred Hill and often included in official commemorations.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104206533|title=Anzac Day|date=1932-04-22|work=Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=8}} Her 1932 play, The Raid, was awarded first place in a competition for one-act plays organised by the Australian Play Society.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28033829|title=Play Contest|date=1932-04-29|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=12}} She was well known in Australian literary and art circles and often an invited speaker at events in Sydney.
Wilcox died on 14 December 1953 in a private hospital in Neutral Bay.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230858273|title=Dora Wilcox dies, aged 80|date=1953-12-15|work=Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=4}}
Works
=Poetry=
- Verses from Maoriland, George Allen, London, 1905
- Rata and Mistletoe, George Allen, London, 1911
=Plays=
- Arawa, unpublished, pre-1923{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223450587|title=After London|date=1923-03-04|work=Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=25}}
- Aroha, unpublished, c.1925{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16237215|title=Near and Far|date=1925-08-22|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=10}}
- Life at the Waratah in the Early 'Fifties, unpublished, c.1929{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16546451|title=Amusements|date=1929-06-18|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=8}}
- Commander Capstan: Comedy in one-act, Dora Wilcox, Sydney, 1931{{Cite book|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/39025913|title=Commander capstan : comedy in one-act|last=Wilcox|first=Dora|date=1931|publisher=[Sydney : The author|language=en}}
- The Raid, unpublished, 1932
- The Four Poster : A Fantasy in One Act, in Best Australian One-Act Plays, William Moore & T. Inglis Moore, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1937 — first performed in 1930{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16724139|title=Community Playhouse|date=1930-10-21|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2018-12-24|pages=4}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{wikisource author-inline|Dora Wilcox}}
- {{AustLit}}
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Category:Australian women poets
Category:University of Canterbury alumni
Category:Writers from Christchurch
Category:19th-century Australian women