An Appreciation: Muriel SPARK 1918-2006

Muriel Spark, writer, born February 1, 1918; died April 13, 2006

MURIEL SPARK, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), her novel of her native Edinburgh, and over twenty other novels, has died near the Tuscan village where she has made her home for almost 30 years. Shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize for Fiction, Scotland-born Spark is acknowledged as one of Britain’s greatest writers. She was truly the real thing; no one else writes the way she does.

Bibliography
SPARK Muriel [1918-2006] Novelist, short-story writer, poet, literary critic, biographer. Born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, Scotland. Novels The Finishing School (2004); Aiding and Abetting (2000); Harper and Wilton (1996); Reality and Dreams (1996); The Portobello Road (1995); Symposium (1990); A Far Cry from Kensington (1988); The Only Problem (1984); Loitering With Intent (1981: shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize for Fiction); Territorial Rights (1979); The Takeover (1976); The Abbess of Crewe (1974); The Hothouse by the East River (1973); Not to Disturb (1971); The Driver’s Seat (1970); The Public Image (1968: shortlisted for the 1969 Booker Prize for Fiction); The Mandelbaum Gate (1965); The Girls of Slender Means (1963); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961); The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960); The Bachelors (1960); Memento Mori (1959); Robinson (1958); The Comforters (1957) Stories Ghost Stories (2003); The Complete Short Stories (2001); The Young Man Who Discovered the Secret of Life and Other Stories (1999); Open to the Public: New and Collected Stories (1997); The Collected Stories (1994); The Stories of Muriel Spark (1985); Bang-Bang You're Dead and Other Stories (1982); Collected Stories I (1967); Voices at Play (stories and radio plays) (1961); The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories (1958) Poetry All the Poems (2004); Going Up to Sotheby’s and Other Poems (1982); Collected Poems I (1967: republished in 1982 as Going Up to Sotheby’s and Other Poems); The Fanfarlo and Other Verse (1952) Drame Doctors of Philosophy (1962) Children’s The French Window and the Small Telephone (1993); The Very Fine Clock (1968) Autobiography Curriculum Vitae (1992) Biography The Essence of the Brontës (1993); Mary Shelley: A Biography (revision of the Child of Light: A Reassessment of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) (1987); John Masefield (1953); Emily Brontë: Her Life and Work (1953); Child of Light: A Reassessment of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1951: republished in 1987 as Mary Shelley: A Biography)

Recommended
Novels Loitering With Intent (1981); The Girls of Slender Means (1963); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961); Memento Mori (1959)
Stories The Complete Short Stories (2001)
Poetry All the Poems (2004)