Gold Cross Research Articles

Jan Rowiński (1936–2023)

Professor Jan Rowiński died on 2 January 2023 in Piaseczno (near Warsaw). He was a member of the Academic Council of the Centre of East Asian Studies at the University of Gdańsk and of the scholarly bi-annual journal Gdańsk East Asian Studies. Jan Rowiński was a professor of the University of Warsaw. As a scholar and a diplomat, he was concerned with China for most of his professional life. He wrote many scholarly articles and books on the politics, culture, and history of China, and his passion for these subjects inspired generations of undergraduates, doctoral students, and colleagues. Inter alia, he owed his knowledge of China and the Chinese to the experience of the many years he spent there first as a student and later as a diplomat. He was born on 11 May 1936 in Kiełpiny. From 1954 to 1959, he studied at the University of Beijing and at the Institute of Diplomacy in Beijing. From the beginning of his studies in Beijing he devoted his entire professional life to the study of East Asia, especially China. He witnessed the transformations that took place in China, and observed the changes in the structures of power there. China had a considerable influence on his way of life. It is difficult to overestimate his contribution to research into that part of the world. His professional life ran on two tracks: on one hand, in diplomacy; on the other, in the academic world. As an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he worked in the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing. Between 1995 and 2001, he was counsellor-minister plenipotentiary and deputy ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the People’s Republic of China. From 1969, he was connected with the Polish Institute of International Affairs, where he held several academic posts, and after completing his habilitation in 1987 was appointed professor there. In 2002, he became professor at the Institute of International Relations of the University of Warsaw in the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, where he worked until 2013. At the University of Warsaw, he conducted classes on the foreign policies of China and Japan, the history and civilization of East Asia, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. He supervised the work of many doctoral students and reviewed doctoral and post-doctoral dissertations. For his achievements, Professor Rowiński was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Gold Cross of Merit.

Tytus Laskiewicz w służbie książki. Z dziejów bibliotek Politechniki Lwowskiej i Politechniki Śląskiej w Gliwicach

Tytus Laskiewicz (1884-1964) was the head of the library of the Lvov University of Technology. His contribution to the transfer of its collections to a new building and the organisation of library work there was exceptional. He published 4 catalogues presenting its collections. He performed the same function at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, where he built the book collection from scratch, dealt with the development of the collection and made it accessible. His duties also involved building issues. Furthermore, Laskiewicz collaborated with the local library community. For his accomplishments in the field of librarianship, he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. The article was developed mainly on the basis of source documents, including materials previously unknown by the scientific community, such as Kronika Biblioteki c.k.Szkoły Politechnicznej we Lwowie (in the collection of the Stefanyk Library in Lviv).

Tunable Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in a Metal-Perovskite Hybrid Metamaterial and Its Sensing Performance

A metal-perovskite hybrid metamaterial, comprising a gold cross and two gold arcs, is proposed. An electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) based on bright–bright coupling model leads to a transparent window at 0.75 THz. A multipole scattering theory indicates that the EIT effect is generated by the destructive interference between the electric dipole and the toroidal dipole. By tuning the conductivity of perovskite, the EIT effect is dynamically controlled and shows the modulation depth of 34% at 0.75 THz. Moreover, the theoretical results calculated by the two-particle model are in good agreement with the simulated results. The group delay of the proposed EIT metamaterial can also be dynamically tuned and the maximum value of group delay is 3.53 ps. The sensitivity of the proposed EIT metamaterial is 0.182 THz/RIU. Compared with other sensors, our EIT metamaterial shows excellent sensitivity in the terahertz band. Our work provides a novel method for tunable EIT metamaterials and shows a great practical application value of modulators, slow light devices, and sensors.

Antenna-based reduced IR absorbers for high-performance microbolometers.

Absorbers for long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) are designed to have a reduced geometry fitted to a gold cross antenna and numerically studied. Compared to the square membrane geometry widely used in conventional microbolometers, the reduced geometry results in smaller thermal capacities of the vanadium dioxide (VO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) layers. However, near-field focusing by the cross antenna leads to a high LWIR absorption. Calculations show that the temperature change per incident energy increases with a decrease in the arm width, and the reduced absorber surpasses the square geometry for all incident angles and polarizations. The antenna-based reduced absorber studied here could serve as an alternative geometry for high-performance microbolometers.

England’s Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs

England’s Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs

Book Review: England's Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs

Hugh Rockoff of Rutgers University reviews “England’s Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs” by James Ashley Morrison. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Presents a sociohistorical account of the United Kingdom's ill-fated restoration of the gold standard in the 1920s, highlighting the individual roles of Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes, and [14] other elite members of the political-economic establishment.”

Low-Voltage Triggered VO2 Hybrid Metasurface Used for Amplitude Modulation of Terahertz Orthogonal Modes

Actively tuning of terahertz (THz) waves through hybrid metasurface has important applications in THz communication, imaging, and modulation. In this paper, we propose a vanadium dioxide (VO2) hybrid metasurface to realize amplitude modulation of THz orthogonal modes at low triggering voltage. The unit cell of the hybrid metasurface consists of two identical gold crosses and a central bar. And two rectangular VO2 patterns are symmetrically embedded in the gaps of the crosses. The performance of the hybrid metasurface is simulated and optimized by using full wave electromagnetic calculation software. The sample is fabricated using a surface micromachining process and characterized by a THz time-domain-spectroscopy (TDS) system. The experimental results show that, the amplitude modulation depth reaches 68% in the range of 0.1~0.8 THz for transverse-magnetic (TM) mode. Moreover, the hybrid metasurface changes from the transparency to the stopband near 0.43 THz for transverse-electrical (TE) mode. A switching time of 1.9 s is achieved when the triggering current is 520 mA and the voltage is 3.65 V. Most importantly, a fast response area is found. If the metasurface is biased with a current of 430 mA near the fast response area, it's easy to switch quickly. This work paves a new way for the miniaturization and integration of electronic-controlled THz switches and modulators.

Active Control of the THz Wave Polarization State by an Electronically Controlled Graphene Composite Metasurface

Active control of terahertz (THz) wave polarization state is of great significance for sensitive detection, imaging and communication. Here, a tunable THz quarter wave plate is designed by electronically controlling a composite metasurface consisting of the gold cross antennas and a monolayer graphene. The graphene composite metasurface acts as a quarter-wave plate when the chemical potential of graphene is 0 eV, by which the polarization state of the incident THz wave is converted from linear polarization to circular polarization. After the chemical potential of graphene is increased gradually, and to 0.5 eV, the transmitted polarization state of the THz wave is changed from right circular polarization to right elliptical polarization, and to linear polarization. Furthermore, the polarization state of the THz wave is able to be changed from left circular polarization to left elliptical polarization, and to linear polarization if the device is clockwise rotated by 90°. Therefore, the polarization state of THz wave could be actively controlled by the proposed tunable THz quarter wave plate. Our work will offer a new avenue for tunable THz polarization modulation devices.

Inflation? It’s Import Prices and the Labor Share!

Recognizing that inflation of the value of output and its costs of production must be equal, we focus on a cost-based macroeconomic structuralist approach in contrast to micro-oriented monetarist analysis. For decades the import and profit shares of cost have risen, while the wage share has declined to around 50% with money wage increases lagging the sum of growth rates of prices and productivity. Conflicting claims to income are the underlying source of inflationary pressure. Inflation affects income (labor’s spending power) and wealth. Monetarist theory around 1900 concentrated on the latter (Bryan and the “Cross of Gold)” leading to the standard Laffer curve. It was replaced by the Friedman-Phelps model which has incorrect dynamics (labor payments do not fall during an expansion – they go up). Samuelson and Solow introduced a version of the Phillips curve that violates macroeconomic accounting. Rational expectations replaced Friedman but was immediately falsified by output drops after the Volcker shock treatment around 1980. There followed a complicated transition from rational expectations to inflation targeting, anchored by economists’ misunderstanding of the physical meaning of ergodicity and ontological blindness. It did not help that the real balance effect is irrelevant because money makes up a small part of wealth. Rather than issuing veiled threats of disaster if its policy advice is not followed, the Fed now announces inflation targets which it cannot meet. Contemporary structuralist theory suggests that conflicting income claims set the inflation rate. Firms can mark up costs but workers have latent bargaining power over the labor share that they can exercise. Import costs and policy repercussions complicate the picture, but a simple vector error correction model and visual analysis suggest that money wages would have to grow one percentage point faster than prices plus productivity for several years if the Fed is to meet a three percent inflation target. The results pose a Biden policy trilemma: (i) the only path toward a more egalitarian size distribution of income is through a rising labor share (money wage growth exceeds price plus productivity growth), (ii) which would provoke faster inflation with feedback to rising interest rates, and (iii) the resulting asset price deflation likely facing political resistance from Wall Street and affluent households.

"Faithful...In My Fashion[ing]": Shades of Association in Ernest Dowson's Poetry

"Faithful...In My Fashion[ing]": Shades of Association in Ernest Dowson's Poetry Robert Stark (bio) Then may the battle be decided by what people are pleased to call our own experience. Our own indeed! What is our own save by mere courtesy of speech? A matter of fashion. Sanction sanctifieth, and fashion fashioneth. Samuel Butler, Life and Habit (1877) The following anecdote, which appeared in T.P.'s Weekly in July 1913 attributed to "Guy Thorne," pseudonym of the journalist and novelist Ranger Gull, may be the quaintest of all the sundry tales that have become attached to the life of Ernest Dowson. Gull describes meeting the poet in London in 1898: He seemed a lost creature, a youthful ghost strayed amongst the haunts of men, an object of pity. Pale, emaciated, in clothes that were almost ragged, poor Ernest flittered from bar to bar in search of someone with whom to talk. When he found a friend, his face would light up with a singular and penetrating sweetness that made one forget his untidiness— to use no other word—which verged on offence. He was never penniless, was always the first to pay for others, and when the drink was served he would sometimes take a little gold cross from his waistcoat pocket and dip it in the glass before he drank. Someone who did not know the circumstances said, "Ernest, were you ever in love?" The poet answered in the words of Voltaire. "Vous me demandez si j'ai aimé: oui! C'est une histoire singulière et terrible."1 Readers will at once recognize the poète maudit of the so-called "Dowson Legend," a figure who, in the words of Arthur Symons, was "never robust, and always reckless with himself"; was often of degraded appearance and was attracted to "sordidness in his surroundings"; was addicted to alcohol and drugs; was [End Page 75] weak, of variable moral character; and was, above all, governed by "the swift, disastrous, and suicidal impetus of genius."2 Trite as they may be, these remarks have the merit of shedding some light at least on Dowson's art and practice as a writer, as more eminent accounts usually do not.3 On being invited to discourse upon his amatory history, the subject of this anecdote does not whimsically recollect a fond past, or peer into his heart, but finds his own situation captured in the words of a foreign writer, in an exotic, outré tradition. Gull marks Dowson's experience as unusual or "singulière" in this way: French literature, not English literature, most accurately reflects his own peculiar aphrodisian misfortune. The encapsulation of the speaker's sentiments in words attributed to Voltaire signal, paradoxically, that they are at once uncommon and yet of a distinct and knowable—perhaps even archetypal—nature. The lovelorn moribund of Gull's narrative appears to be moping and sententious but, if we may attach any veracity to the account at all, the real Ernest Dowson may be having a laugh.4 His French punchline hints at the irregularity of his infamous infatuation with Adelaide Foltinowicz, who was eleven years old when he first met her and determined to bestow his life's work upon her; he was twenty-two. The surreptitious reference hints at the illicit nature of this attachment simply by being French, which was almost automatically associated with scandalous novels and scandalous conduct, and would have been regarded with suspicion outside bohemian circles at this time. But our aptly surnamed stenographer does not recognize, and wrongly attributes, the allusion Dowson makes, and does not get his joke. Dowson replies to his inquisitor very nearly with the opening lines of Théophile Gautier's short story, "La Morte Amoureuse" (variously translated as "The Dead Lover," and "The Vampire"): Vous me demandez, frère, si j'ai aimé; oui.—C'est une histoire singulière et terrible, et, quoique j'ai soixante-six ans, j'ose à peine remuer la cendre de ce souvenir.5 You ask me, brother, if I have ever loved. Yes. It is a strange and terrible story, and, though I am sixty-six, I hardly dare even now to...

“Joining the Institute turned out to be the luckiest choice of my life: I consider myself very fortunate”. Interview with Victoria V. Mochalova. 26 July 2021, Moscow, Neskuchny Garden

At the request of the editorial board of the journal Slavic World in the Third Millennium, Victoria Mochalova recounts her life. She has worked at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1973. Currently, she is a leading researcher on the history of Polish and Czech literature, specializing in literature contacts and intercultural dialogue. She is also a specialist in Jewish studies, the editor-in-chief of the Judaic-Slavic Journal, and a member of the editorial boards of both the journal Slavianovedenie and the annuals Slavic & Jewish Cultures: Dialogue, Similarities, Differences and Tirosh. Jewish, Slavic & Oriental Studies. Victoria was awarded the Amicus Poloniae medal in 1975, The Gold Cross of Merit in 2013, and The Prize of Russian Academy of Sciences and The Polish Academy of Sciences for her contribution to science in 2008. She also won the Fiddler on the Roof 5773/2013 award in the Educational activities category in 2013.

Ultrafast modulation of the spectral filtering properties of a THz metasurface.

We demonstrate ultrafast tuning of a plasmonic spectral filter at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The device is made of periodically spaced gold crosses deposited on the surface of an undoped silicon wafer in which transient free carriers can be optically injected with a femtosecond resonant pulse. We demonstrate the concept by measuring the transmission spectrum of a notch filter using time-domain THz spectroscopy. Proper synchronization of the THz probe and visible excitation pulses leads to an enhanced transmission at the resonance by more than two orders of magnitude. Finite-difference time-domain simulations, which are in agreement with the experimental results, show that the underlying mechanisms responsible for the resonance blueshift and linewidth broadening can be attributed to the photoinduced change in dielectric properties of the substrate. This is supported by the numerically simulated field distribution and reflection/transmission coefficients. The device can be used in future pulse shaping and ultrafast switching experiments.

Karol Kaczkowski (1787-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, epidemiologist, innovator, teacher

The name of Karol Kaczkowski, one of the pioneers of Polish epidemiology of the 19th century, has been somewhat forgotten. Hence, it is worth getting acquainted with his actions that he made contributing to the effective inhibition of the spread of the cholera epidemic that hit Polish territory in the 1830s. KAROL KACZKOWSKI (1797-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, doctor, professor, He was born in Warsaw on 2 February 1797. In 1805 his parents moved to Krzemieniec. In 1815, he began medical studies at the University of Vilnius. He was friends with philomaths: Adam Mickiewicz and Tomasz Zan. In 1821 he obtained the degree of doctor of medicine. In the years 1824-1828 he traveled around Europe. In 1829, he was nominated the Head of the Therapeutic Clinic at the University of Warsaw. After the outbreak of the November Uprising on November 29, 1830, he joined the artillery and in 1831 was appointed chief physician of the Polish Army. He organized the command of the military health service, hospitals and field hospitals. After the battle of Grochów, he organized battalion dressing points and a cordon of doctors who provided quick help to the wounded. On February 5, 1831, Karol Kaczkowski was appointed the Chief Physician of the Polish Army. When the first cholera patients, brought in by the Russian army, arrived in Warsaw in the spring of 1831, he prepared instructions on how to detect and treat cholera. He created cholera hospitals in Mienia and Warsaw, and sanitary supervision in military units. For this he was awarded the Wirtuti Militari Gold Cross. After the fall of the uprising, he left Poland with a group of 2,000. injured. He got to Prussia, and then to Lviv. In 1854 he settled in Żytomierz. He suffered harassment from the tsarist authorities. In 1863, during the January Uprising, he was sent to the Voronezh Governorate. In 1867, he obtained a permit to travel to Kherson, where he died on September 14, 1867.

Organizacja i funkcjonowanie duszpasterstwa wyznania prawosławnego w Wojsku Polskim na Zachodzie w latach 1943-1945

In 1943 significant change occurred in the history of the Orthodox military pastoral ministry in the Polish Armed Forces in the West. It was related to the appointment of a military Orthodox bishop. This function was taken over by the former Bishop of Grodno-Nowogrodek Sawa (Sovetov). He was considered to be the only hierarch of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which remained faithful to the principles of autocephaly. His efforts to defend the independence of Polish Orthodoxy were indispensable at the time. The period during which Bishop Sawa performed the function of military Orthodox bishop in Great Britain and on the continent contributed to the development of this religion’s ministry. He rose to the tasks entrusted to him, which was appreciated by the military and political authorities. Shortly after the war, Bishop Sawa was awarded, among others, with the Gold Cross of Merit with Swords. As a military Orthodox bishop he proved himself as a zealous patriot and tireless priest who tried to provide proper spiritual care to all Polish soldiers. The purpose of the following article is to present the selection process of a military Orthodox priest in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, the circumstances in which the decision was made to appoint Bishop Sawa, his actions and the difficulties he had to overcome during his ministry.

140 години български закон за здравеопазването. Д-р Димитър Петров Моллов и връзката „педагогика–медицина“

The author dedicates the article to an important anniversary – 140 years since the adoption of the “Provisional Rules for the Sanitary Structure of the Principality of Bulgaria”. Dr. Dimitar Petrov Mollov is the main author of this law. He is an alumnus of Elena’s class school. He has worked as a teacher in the villages of Sadina, Kovachevets and Varbitsa, Popovo. He studied in Kiev and graduated there the Spiritual Seminary in 1867. He studied medicine at the Moscow University and brilliantly defends his dissertation on “Claud Bernard’s Chloroforming”, a major contribution to world anesthesiology. In the history of Bulgarian medicine, he has two first places: the first Bulgarian doctor to be awarded the Doctor of Medical Sciences in Russia and the first Bulgarian academic professor of surgery in Russia. He participated in the Serbian-Turkish war. After the Liberation, Dr. Mollov actively participates in political life and contributes greatly to building the foundations of Bulgarian culture and Bulgarian healthcare. He participates in the four consecutive wars: the Serbian-Turkish, the Liberation, the Serbian-Bulgarian and the Inter-Allied, and he performs the tasks assigned to him. Dr. Mollov was awarded with: Silver and Gold Cross, Serbian Silver Order for his participation in the Serbian- Turkish War 1876, Russian Order “St. Stanislav” – second degree and two orders“St. Alexander” – third degree (1883; 1886); Turkish Medjidis Order; Bulgarian Order for Civil Service –First Degree 1896.

Neutron-induced cross sections

Neutron capture cross sections are one of the most important nuclear inputs to models of stellar nucleosynthesis of the elements heavier than iron. The activation technique and the time-of-flight method are mostly used to determine the required data experimentally. Recent developments of experimental techniques allow for new experiments on radioactive isotopes. Monte-Carlo based analysis methods give new insights into the systematic uncertainties of previous measurements. We present an overview over the state-of-the-art experimental techniques, a detailed new evaluation of the $^{197}$Au(n,$\gamma$) cross section in the keV-regime and the corresponding re-evaluation of 63 more isotopes, which have been measured in the past relative to the gold cross section.

FIRST CROCUSES

2 8 Y F I R S T C R O C U S E S D O N A L D P L A T T They are the colors of my dead father’s Lenten chasuble, royal purple with one huge gold cross, as he celebrated the early Sunday morning mass. No, these crocuses are the colors of my first girlfriend’s striped panties as I groped her on the balcony of the Mahaiwe Theater. We were watching the Bolsheviks in Doctor Zhivago wait in silence with their machine gun under tall pines for tiny soldiers in white tunics to walk closer across a wheat field studded with poppies before opening fire. After the gun rasped out its hacking coughs, the Red Army battalion crossed the waist-high wheat field to find they had executed boy soldiers, students at St. Michael’s, a local military school. Golden the wheat field, purple theshadowsthatthetallpinescast.Redthepoppiesandthewhitetunics splashed with blood. Itwastoosweetcommunionwine,whitewafersonthegold-platedpaten my father held aloft and blessed, Behold the Lamb of God; behold him that taketh away the sins of the world. Sin of that machine gun stuttering, pronouncing its idiot, one-word sentence on the bodies of boys barely fifteen. 2 9 R David Lean, director of Doctor Zhivago, shot the movie mostly near Madrid in midsummer. He recreated Russian winter by buying hundreds of tons of marble from a nearby quarry. He had the stone ground down to a fine white powder and spread the snow that wouldn’t melt across five acres of a Spanish plain for a single cavalry charge. In the title role, Omar Sharif complained of David Lean, ‘‘He considers everybody on the set, everybody who is helping to make the film, as objects, rather than as people. They are the things that are making his film, and well, you can see how easy it is . . . to be terribly unhappy and rather hate him for it. I know that I have, at the end of many days’ shooting, felt terrible hate for him.’’ A son renouncing the father who gave him the best role of his career, who said, ‘‘He’s a very sensitive actor, and we happen to work very well together . . . And I thought I could get this Russian poet out of him.’’ Imperious father, who liked to say, ‘‘Alright, Omar, action!’’ but who told Sharif to let the other actors in Zhivago act. ‘‘You don’t have to play anything at all. They will all be better than you. You must never be wonderful at any shot or any scene that you are playing. I don’t want anyone to say that you are good. You will be normal, completely nothing. No acting 3 0 Y at all! But at the end, when people see the whole film, they will say you are good.’’ At the end of his life, Omar would admit, ‘‘I loved David Lean, and when he said this to me, it was an order. I never tried to act in the film. I was completely real.’’ At Varykino, Omar still looks out the frost-ferned window that thaws to a field of da√odils and birches waving in the wind. The balalaika plays. Omar looks and looks with wide, brown, sorrowing eyes that see nothing but a single da√odil that dissolves into Julie Christie’s face stunned to see Yuri enter the dusty library where she bends over an open book in shadow. Crocuses’ orange pistils are the size of my first girlfriend’s swollen clitoris beneath her wet, silk, purple panties striped with gold. Her breath’s sharp intake. It all comes back, but only for one moment. I’ve heard she manages a bank, is married, has three children. I do not want to spoil that hour in the dark by seeing her again. I won’t whisper her name. Life is unreal as an epic film fed reel by reel into an ancient projector that stutters, then breaks down. My father died from Alzheimer’s. He forgot everyone except my mother, who now is dead. One day I too will close my eyes, won’t see that this spring’s crocuses are all...

The Carbunculus (Red Garnet) and the Double Nature of Christ in the Early Medieval West

SummaryThis paper aims to discuss the employment of garnets on early medieval gold crosses. Despite appearing on a large number of pectoral crosses from the Mediterranean as well as from northern Europe, the symbolism of garnets has never been fully explored. No study has related their employment to the major controversies that took place between the late seventh and the first half of the ninth centuries over the natures of Christ and the symbolism related to his incarnation. During these centuries, the Greek and Latin words meaning “garnet” gained new nuances in religious texts: this literary development will be followed, to shed light on the early medieval understanding and perception of garnets on early medieval crosses.

“What Is a Place?”: Exploring Place and Displacement in Lauretta Ngcobo’s Novel Cross of Gold

ABSTRACTVery little has been written about Lauretta Ngcobo’s first novel, Cross of Gold. Ngcobo uses a historical moment in Cross of Gold where the novel follows the lives of those affected by the Sharpeville Massacre. Central in the novel is the displacement of Black people during apartheid as a result of the pass laws as well as the oppressive apartheid laws that forced Black people to leave their homes. The novel brings into question the representation of place as there are various spatial representations such as exile, home, imprisonment and rural and urban spaces. This paper will explore how Ngcobo uses place to write about the Black experience during apartheid South Africa. The use of place as a motif in the novel raises questions about the subjectivity and identity of the characters.

Aesthetics, Crosses of Yokes and Honour in Lauretta G. Ngcobo’s Cross of Gold

ABSTRACTThe proposition seems tenable that the aesthetics of Lauretta G. Ngcobo’s creative imagination is considerably underwritten by Cross of Gold. The intertextual dynamics that undergird her first novel confirm her as erudite, travelled and widely exposed to good old belles-lettres. Additional to the manifest mark of the author’s learning and socio-cultural savvy, the novel is rendered in exquisite prose that is evidence of a masterly command of English, with the result that setting, characterisation, plot, entirety of material, come through with extraordinary sensitivity, speed and punch. The flow of Ngobo’s creative imagination, eloquence, and keen sense of observation combine in her writing to place her Cross of Gold well above two critical charges that circulated within the mid-twentieth century academic tradition of theory and criticism of African writing that emanated in part from an influential class of critic-writers of African literature. The first charge against the African novel was that it tended to read like a school textbook meant for specialist attention; that the prose works did not cater to the interest of the casual or common reader. The second charge was that the literature from apartheid South Africa was prone in content and form to being journalistic by seeming to disdain certain aspects of the aesthetics or mechanics of the creative imagination, novelistic writing in particular, and tending to sloganeering and propaganda – this latter charge coming from a famous author and compatriot of Ngcobo, Lewis Nkosi. In Cross of Gold Ncgobo engagingly overrides both charges. This article examines the novelistic craft of Ncgobo in an attempt to show the success and accomplishment of this author as well as her enduring contribution to literature and society in a single book of her oeuvre.