Letters from Iris Murdoch and others to John Gheeraert
TitleLetters from Iris Murdoch and others to John Gheeraert
ReferenceKUAS61
Date
1991-23 Mar 2002
Creator Iris Murdoch, 1919-1999, author
Production date 1991-01-01 - 2002-03-23
Scope and ContentLetters written from Iris Murdoch to John Gheeraert, a friend, author and philosopher in Belgium. Many of the letters date from later in her life, giving an indication of what stayed in her memory as her Alzheimers developed. There are also some letters in the collection from John Bayley, and the Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies, with a copy of 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals' signed by Iris Murdoch.
Extent1 file and 1 volume
SubjectCorrespondence
Admin. history/BiographyIris Murdoch was born in Dublin, Ireland on 15 Jul 1919. When she was very young Iris and her parents moved to London, where Iris attended the Froebel Institute in Roehampton and Badminton School in Bristol. She followed this with studies in classics, ancient history and philosophy at Oxford, and further study at Cambridge. During the Second World War Murdoch worked for HM Treasury in London and then joined the UNRRA, providing relief in formerly occupied countries in Europe. In 1948 she became a fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, where she taught and researched philosophy.
Iris Murdoch wrote a number of tracts on philosophy, however it is for her novels that she is best known. She wrote 26 novels in total, her first being 'Under the Net' published in 1954. Other notable works include 'The Bell' and 'The Sea, the Sea', for which she won the Booker Prize in 1978. Her final novel, 'Jackson's Dilemma', was published in 1995.
Iris Murdoch had romantic relationships with a number of individuals. She met author and scholar John Bayley while at Oxford and they married in 1956.
Later in life Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the first effects of which she had attributed to writer's block. Iris Murdoch died in 1999.
Levelfonds
