February 8, 1999

The work of Iris Murdoch (July 15, 1919 to February 8, 1999 ) continues to dazzle readers of her novels and philosophy. Peter Conradi is a recent example. He edited Iris Murdoch, A Writer at War : Letters and Diaries, 1939-1945 (2009). Regarding the difficulties of comprehending her as a person, Conradi mentions:

"Phillipa Foot, her closest friend over sixty years, compared Murdoch's secrecy to that of a cat." 

And in this volume we read that Murdoch herself observed a feline quality in intellectual women, which developed in their twenties, and which she specified in herself, as developing sharp claws in self defense.

And at the end, her husband, Oxford professor John Bayley, called her "my old cat," or "my darling, clever cat!"


So this picture from pinterest is not surprising:



But for pictures that say something new I like the cover of Conradi's book: