Peter Conradi Archive
TitlePeter Conradi Archive
ReferenceKUAS6
Date
1888-24 Jun 2002
Production date 1888-01-01 - 2002-06-24
Scope and ContentResearch and correspondence related to Peter Conradi's book 'Iris Murdoch: A life' which was published in 2001. Peter Conradi was a friend of Iris Murdoch and she asked him to write her biography.
The research either focuses on specific individuals who knew the author, or specific periods in her life. It includes interviews and correspondence with those who knew her, copies of some of her writings, copies of articles or interviews with Iris Murdoch, research into her family, her schools, life at Oxford and Cambridge and working during the war, and other places of interest. The collection also contain s originals and copies of letters written by Iris Murdoch to various friends and acquaitances. With some research conducted by Jane Jantet, Peter Conradi's research assistant.
The research either focuses on specific individuals who knew the author, or specific periods in her life. It includes interviews and correspondence with those who knew her, copies of some of her writings, copies of articles or interviews with Iris Murdoch, research into her family, her schools, life at Oxford and Cambridge and working during the war, and other places of interest. The collection also contain s originals and copies of letters written by Iris Murdoch to various friends and acquaitances. With some research conducted by Jane Jantet, Peter Conradi's research assistant.
Extent25 boxes
Admin. history/BiographyPeter Conradi is the author of critical studies of Dostoevsky, Angus Wilson, and John Fowles. He was a friend of Dame Iris Murdoch’s and his biography ‘Iris Murdoch: A Life’ was published in 2001.Iris 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.
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