Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), Novelist and philosopher
Dame (Jean) Iris Murdoch
Sitter in 33 portraits
Murdoch graduated with a first-class degree from Somerville College, Oxford (1942) and studied philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge (1947-8), before becoming a tutor in the subject at St Anne's College, Oxford until 1963. Her works on philosophy include Sartre, Romantic Rationalist (1953). After publishing her first novel Under the Net in 1954, she wrote one a year. Described as psychological thrillers, they portray 20th century professional and intellectual middle-class life. The Sea, The Sea (1978) won the Booker Prize. She married John Bayley in 1956, and their struggle with her Alzheimer's Disease was the subject of books by Bayley, and of the film Iris (2002).
by Lord Snowdon
vintage bromide print, 20 November 1980
NPG P830
by Derry Moore, 12th Earl of Drogheda
colour print, 29 September 1992
NPG P530
by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1957
NPG x132970
by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1957
NPG x134438
by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1957
NPG x134439
by Ida Kar
2 1/4 inch square film negative, 1957
NPG x134440
by Mark Gerson
modern bromide print, October 1958
NPG x88220
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