Dame Iris Murdoch

Frances Clare Patricia White (Kingston University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 15 Jul 1919
Died 8 Feb 1999
Activity 1954-1999

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Murdoch's Works

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Professor John Bayley kindly provided the photograph of Iris Murdoch. Although every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge the copyright-holder, we have been unable to do so. We would be grateful for information which would enable us to rectify the omission

Iris Murdoch had a long and distinguished dual career as a major twentieth-century English novelist and an influential moral philosopher. She was born on 15th July 1919 in Dublin and christened Jean Iris Murdoch. Her father was Wills John Hughes Murdoch who came from sheep-farming stock in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, and her mother was Irene Alice (neé Richardson) from Dublin who trained as a singer until her daughter was born. Murdoch's background is thus Irish, but not “Anglo-Irish”, as, for example, Elizabeth Bowen

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3588 words

Citation: White, Frances Clare Patricia. "Dame Iris Murdoch". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3262, accessed 22 November 2024.]