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Full Description
Iris Murdoch was an acclaimed novelist and groundbreaking philosopher whose life reflected her unconventional beliefs and values. But what has been missing from biographical accounts has been Murdoch's own voice--her life in her own words. Living on Paper--the first major collection of Murdoch's most compelling and interesting personal letters--gives, for the first time, a rounded self-portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and thinkers. With more than 760 letters, fewer than forty of which have been published before, the book provides a unique chronicle of Murdoch's life from her days as a schoolgirl to her last years. The result is the most important book about Murdoch in more than a decade. The letters show a great mind at work--struggling with philosophical problems, trying to bring a difficult novel together, exploring spirituality, and responding pointedly to world events.
They also reveal her personal life, the subject of much speculation, in all its complexity, especially in letters to lovers or close friends, such as the writers Brigid Brophy, Elias Canetti, and Raymond Queneau, philosophers Michael Oakeshott and Philippa Foot, and mathematician Georg Kreisel. We witness Murdoch's emotional hunger, her tendency to live on the edge of what was socially acceptable, and her irreverence and sharp sense of humor. We also learn how her private life fed into the plots and characters of her novels, despite her claims that they were not drawn from reality. Direct and intimate, these letters bring us closer than ever before to Iris Murdoch as a person, making for an extraordinary reading experience.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix Introduction xi Part One: Schoolgirl and Student, August 1934 to December 1941 1 Part Two: Work and War, July 1942 to October 1947 21 Part Three: Academic and Author, October 1947 to September 1954 93 Part Four: Decisions, February 1955 to December 1962 163 Part Five: The RCA Years, January 1963 to November 1967 233 Part Six: Woman of Letters, January 1968 to December 1978 351 Part Seven: Dame Iris, January 1979 to December 1989 465 Part Eight: Last Letters, February 1990 to September 1995 557 Directory of Names and Terms 600 Murdoch's Novels and Their Dedicatees 628 Sources of Letters 629 Abbreviations 632 Notes 633 Acknowledgements 641 Index 645
