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Christina STEAD

Christina Ellen Stead, (17 July 1902 – 31 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and psychological characterisations. Her best known work was The Man Who Loved Children.

Christina was born on 17 March 1902 at Rockdale only child of David George Stead and his wife, Ellen nee Butters, who died in 1904. In 1907 David Stead married Ada Gibbins and the new family moved to Lydham Hall, Bexley, an old sandstone cottage owned by Ada’s father.

Christina attended Bexley Public and Kogarah Girls’ Intermediate High (from 1916 St George Girls’ High) schools and, from 1917, Sydney Girls High School. (The family had moved to Watson’s Bay in 1917). In 1919, she took up a scholarship at Sydney Teachers’ College. In 1923, she was appointed to Darlinghurst Public School and then transferred to Blackfriars correspondence School. In 1925, she resigned from the Department of Education and, in 1928, sailed for England. From 1930 to 1935, she worked in a Parisian bank and had two books published, The Salzburg Tales and Seven Poor Men of Sydney.

Stead wrote 12 novels and several volumes of short stories in her lifetime. She taught at New York University and also worked as a Hollywood scriptwriter.

In 1952, after his divorce, Christina Stead married William J Blake (formerly Wilhelm Blech) her partner since 1929. After his death in1968, she returned to Australia.

Stead died in hospital at Balmain, Sydney, in 1983 aged 80. In 2014, Woolhara Council installed a plaque on the footpath outside Stead’s former home in Pacific Street, Watson’s Bay. Rockdale City Council purchased her childhood home, Lydham Hall, in 1970 and , in 1971, opened the building to the public. It is located at 18 Lydham Avenue, Bexley.

View the entry for Christina STEAD and family in the database. Click on her name at the heading of this page.

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