by Muriel Spark
Decorative Art
Review of ‘Professor’ George Burchett’s Memoirs of a Tattooist, edited and compiled by Peter Leighton (Oldbourne Press), published in the Observer, Sunday 4 May 1958.
Poetry and Politics
Essay published in Parliamentary Affairs, Journal of the Hansard Society, Vol. I No. 4, Autumn 1948.
Emily Brontë
Introduction to Selected Poems of Emily Brontë, selected and edited by Muriel Spark (London: Grey Walls Press, ‘Crown Classics’, 1952).
Part II. Autobiography and Travel
My Most Memorable New Year’s Eve
Commissioned by and published in the New York Times Book Review in Enid Nemi’s article of 21 December 1982.
When I Was Ten
Published in the Daily Telegraph, London, 15 March 2003.
Pensée: Scottish Education
Taken from answers to questions from Il Messaggero newspaper, Rome, July 2003.
My Book of Life
Published in the Sunday Telegraph, London, 18 March 2001, under the title ‘Guide to Life’.
Note on My Story ‘The Gentile Jewesses’
Extract from BBC Third Programme broadcast talk, 1963.
The Celestial Garden Party
Essay published in the Telegraph Magazine, London, Autumn/Winter fashion special, 14 September 2002, under the title ‘Addicted to Hats’.
What Images Return
First published in the New Statesman, 10 August 1962, under the title ‘Edinburgh Born’. Reprinted in Memoirs of a Modern Scotland, edited by Karl Miller (London: Faber & Faber, 1970).
The Poet’s House and Comment on ‘The Poet’s House’
Both published in Encounter, XXX, No. 5, 5 May 1968. First broadcast on BBC Home Service, 7 July 1960.
Footnote to ‘The Poet’s House’
Published in Architectural Digest, November 1985. Reprinted in the Independent Magazine, 5 November 1988.
My Madeleine
First published in The New Yorker magazine, 25 December 2000 and 1 January 2001. Published in London in Tatler, November 2001, as ‘The One that Got Away’. Reprinted in QPB Calendar of Days, 2004, USA.
How I Became a Novelist
Originally a BBC radio broadcast talk called ‘Two of a Kind’, 26 April 1960. Published in John O’London’s Weekly, III, No. 61, 1 December 1960 and in Books and Bookmen, November 1961.
The Writing Life
First published in the Washington Post Book World, 11 March 2001; reprinted by the Washington Post in The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work. A Collection from the Washington Post Book World, edited with an introduction by Marie Arana (New York: Public Affairs, 2003).
Living in Rome
Commissioned by and first published in The New York Times magazine Sophisticated Traveler, 13 March 1983, under their title ‘My Rome’, and in volume form in The Sophisticated Traveler: Beloved Cities Europe (New York: Villard Books, 1984). Reprinted in the London Weekend Telegraph, Saturday 2 April 1988 under the title ‘There’s No Place Like Rome’. Subsequently published in Italian and English in the anthology Italy: The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times (Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2004).
Venice
Commissioned by and first published in The New York Times magazine Sophisticated Traveler, 25 October 1981, under the title ‘Venice in Fall and Winter’. Reprinted in Italian and English in the anthology Italy: The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times (Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2004). Reprinted in Desiring Italy, ed. Susan Cahill (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1997). (Muriel Spark’s original title: ‘Venice Out of Season’.)
Istanbul
Written October 1988. Commissioned by The Sunday Times, London, and published by them in their ‘Travel and Leisure’ section, 24 September 1989, under the title ‘A Living Museum’. (Muriel Spark’s original title: ‘Sailing to Byzantium’.)
Tuscany By Chance
Commissioned by and published in The New York Times magazine Sophisticated Traveler, 7 October 1984, under the title ‘Side Roads of Tuscany’.
The Sitter’s Tale
Commissioned by and published in the Independent on Sunday, 22 August 1999.
Italian Days
Replies to questions from Il Messaggero newspaper, Rome, July 2003. Published in Italian under the title ‘Quell’indulgenza che conquista’, 14 August 2003. Unpublished in English.
The David Cohen British Literature Prize, 1997
Speech of acceptance given 19 March 1997 at Coutts Bank, Piccadilly, London, for the David Cohen British Literature Prize ‘For a Lifetime’s Achievement’. Published in The Times, London, 20 March 1997, under the title ‘The Best Part of a Lifetime: Muriel Spark on her Place in English Letters’.
Part III. Literature
How to Write a Letter
First published in the Independent Magazine, 18 August 1990. Reprinted in The Melbourne Age.
Our Dearest Emma
Review of Lozania Prole, Our Dearest Emma (London: Museum Press Ltd, 1949).
Passionate Humbugs
Review of Queens of the Circulating Library, ed. Alan Walbank (London: Evans Brothers, 1950) and Ouida by Eileen Bigland (London: Jarrolds Ltd, 1950), published in Public Opinion No. 4657, Friday 23 February 1951.
Pensée: Biography
Extract from review ‘Pageantry and Realism’, published in Public Opinion No. 4638, Friday 13 October 1950.
Fuzzy Young Person
Review of Bettina: A Portrait by Arthur Helps and Elizabeth Jane Howard (London: Chatto, 1957), published in the Observer, Sunday 29 September 1957, under the title ‘Romantic’.
The Brontës as Teachers
Essay published in The New Yorker magazine, 22 January 1966. Reprinted in Muriel Spark’s The Essence of the Brontës (London: Peter Owen, 1993; Manchester: Carcanet, 2014). The essay has been translated and published in France, Germany and Italy.
My Favourite Villain: Heathcliff
Originally broadcast on the BBC’s Light Programme, Woman’s Hour, 12 October 1960. Reprinted in Muriel Spark’s The Essence of the Brontës (London: Peter Owen, 1993; Manchester: Carcanet, 2014).
Mrs Gaskell
Review of Elizabeth Gaskell: Her Life and Work by Annette Brown Hopkins (London: John Lehmann, 1952), published in The Contemporary Review, vol. 186 (1954), edited by A. Strachan, p. 124, ‘Muriel Spark on Mrs Gaskell, 1954’.
Mary Shelley
‘Author’s Note’ written 2006; ‘Proposal’, written 1950. Muriel Spark’s critical biography of Mary Shelley was first published as Child of Light: A Reassessment of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Hadleigh, Essex: Tower Bridge Publications, 1951), revised as Mary Shelley (New York: Dutton, 1987; London: Constable, 1988); reissued in 2013 by Carcanet Press, Manchester, including the ‘Author’s Note’ and ‘Proposal’.
Mary Shelley: Wife to a Genius
Published in Public Opinion, 2 February 1951.
Frankenstein and The Last Man
Originally broadcast on the BBC Light Programme, Thursday 1 February and Friday 2 February 1951 (recorded). Published in The Listener, 22 February 1951, under the title ‘Mary Shelley, a Prophetic Novelist’.
Shelley’s Last House
Commissioned by and published in Architectural Digest, June 1986, under the title ‘Echoes of Shelley in Italy’. Reprinted in the Independent Magazine, 29 July 1989 and Ulysse 2000 in Italy, September 1989, under the title ‘La Casa dei Presagi’.
The Essential Stevenson
Extracts from review published in Public Opinion, 10 November 1950, of Stevenson and Edinburgh by Moray McLaren (London: Chapman & Hall, 1950), The Tales and Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by G.B. Stern (London: The Falcon Press, 1950) and Selected Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by G.B. Stern (London: Grey Walls Press, 1950).
Robert Louis Stevenson
Address given on the occasion of Muriel Spark’s unveiling a stone memorial dedicated to R.L.S. by Ian Hamilton
Finlay in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, 14 July 1989.
Celebrating Scotland
Opinion sent to the Royal Society of Edinburgh regarding Celebrating Scotland: A National Cultural Strategy. Unpublished letter, August 1999.
The Books I Re-Read and Why
Answer to question from The New York Times Book Review, published summer 1983.
London Exotics
Originally published in June 1953 in the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association Magazine. Reprinted in The New Yorker magazine, 28 January 1967, under the title ‘Exotic Departures’.
A Drink with Dame Edith
Memoir published by the Literary Review, London, February 1997. Muriel Spark’s original title: ‘Drinks with Edith Sitwell: A Memoir’.
Pensée: Miss Brodie on the Stage
Unpublished note written in response to the stage version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the National Theatre, London, 1998.
The Short Story
Address given at an international conference on the short story at Angers University, France, 21 January 1989.
Daughter of the Soil
Essay published in the Observer, Sunday 12 January 1958, under their title ‘Best-Sellers of the Century – 9’ (Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell).
Heinrich Böll
Response to the brief ‘The Living Author I Most Admire’, commissioned by and published in The New York Times Book Review, 4 December 1977.
Eyes and Noses
Essay published in the Observer, Sunday 18 January 1953.
Simenon: A Phenomenal Writer
Review of Pierre Assouline, Simenon: A Biography (London: Chatto & Windus, 1997), translated from the French by Jon Rothschild, published in The Sunday Times, 17 August 1997.
The Book I Would Like to Have Written – and Why
Reply to question from The New York Times Book Review, published December 1981.
Pensée: The Supernatural
Answer to a question published in the newspaper Il Messaggero (Rome), July 2003.
Part IV. Religion, Politics and Philosophy
Testament of Faith
Review of Thoughts for Meditation, selected by N. Gangulee with a Foreword by T.S. Eliot (London: Faber & Faber, 1951), published in Public Opinion No. 4671, Friday 1 June 1951.
Ailourophilia
Essay published in Book Week, 27 December 1964, under the pseudonym ‘Evelyn Cavallo’. (Muriel Spark wrote a review of cat books with this title which was published in the Observer, 15 December 1957.)
All God’s Creatures
Abbreviated essay published in Seven Days, the magazine of the Glasgow Herald, 9 January 2000. Muriel Spark’s original title: ‘Dogs, Cats and Others’.
The Sermons of Newman
First published in The Critic (USA), Vol. XXII, No. 6, June–July 1964. Taken from Muriel Spark’s introduction to Cardinal Newman’s Best Plain Sermons (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964); published in the UK as the foreword to Realizations: Newman’s Own Selection of His Sermons (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964).
Newman’s Journals
Review of John Henry Newman: Autobiographical Writings (London: Sheed & Ward, 1956), published in the Observer, 1956.
An Exile’s Path
Review of Sean O’Faolain, Newman’s Way (London: Longmans), published in the Observer, Sunday 30 November 1952.
A Sleep of Prisoners
Review of play by Christopher Fry for the Religious Drama Society, written especially for the Festival of Britain and performed at St Mary’s Church, Oxford, 1951. Published in the Spectator, 27 April 1951.
Psychic Searchlight
Review of D.J. West, Psychical Research To-day (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1954), published in the Observer (‘Shorter Notices’), Sunday 1 August 1954, signed ‘M.S.’.
A Pardon for the Guy
Essay on Guy Fawkes, forgiveness and a plea for a royal pardon. Published in the Observer, London, 6 November 1977 (abridged and edited by the Observer).
The Religion of an Agnostic: A Sacramental View of the World in the Writings of Proust
Essay published in The Church of England Newspaper on Friday 27 November 1953.
The Only Problem
Preface to the novel The Only Problem by Muriel Spark, published as a signed and limited first edition by the Franklin Library (Pennsylvania, 1984).
The Mystery of Job’s Suffering
Review of C.G. Jung, Answer to Job (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954), translated by R.F.C. Hull, published in The Church of England Newspaper, 15 April 1955.
An Unknown Author
Review of The Book of Job, translated and introduced by Raymond P. Scheindlin (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998), published under ‘Meditation’ in the Literary Review, London, October 1998.
Man’s Estate
Review of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin (Paris: Seuil, 1957, and London: Collins, 1960), published in the Observer, 18 December 1960, under their title ‘A Foretaste of Eternity’.
Kierkegaard
Review of T.H. Croxall, Meditations from Kierkegaard (London: Nisbet, 1956) and Kierkegaard Commentary (London: Nisbet / New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956), published in the Observer, Sunday 29 July 1956.
Karl Heim: Two Important Works
Review of Karl Heim, The Transformation of the Scientific World View (London: SCM Press, 1953) and Christian Faith and Natural Science (London: SCM Press, 1954) published in Journal of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, February 1954.
Letter from Rome: The Elder Statesmen
Letter from Rome to The New Yorker magazine. Published (in an abridged version) in The Tablet, 24 March 1973, under the title ‘When Israel went to the Vatican’.
Ritual and Recipe
Review of Garry Hogg, Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice (London: Robert Hale, 1958), published in the Observer, Sunday 27 July 1958.
The Next World and Back
Response to the brief ‘A place I have never been to but would like to go’, commissioned by and published in The New York Times, Sophisticated Traveler, 4 March 1990, under their title ‘A Peek Through the Pearly Gates’.
INDEX OF NAMES
Alexander, Sir Kenneth 1
Allen, Jay Presson 1
Atatürk, Kemal 1, 2
Auden, W.H. 1, 2, 3
Austen, Howard 1
Austen, Jane 1, 2
Baudelaire, Charles 1, 2
Beardsley, Aubrey 1
Beerbohm, Max 1
Belloc, Hilaire 1
Bellow, Saul 1
Blackwood, Algernon 1
Boccaccio, Giovanni 1
Böll, Heinrich 1, 2
Bonaparte, Napoleon 1
Brentano, Bettina 1
Brontë, Anne 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Brontë, Branwell 1, 2
Brontë, Charlotte 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Brontë, Emily 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Wuthering Heights 1
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 1
Browning, Robert 1, 2
Burchett, George 1
Burne-Jones, Edward 1
Burns, Robert 1, 2, 3, 4
Byron, George Gordon (6th Baron Byron) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Caballé, Montserrat 1
Campbell, Roy 1
Carlyle, Jane 1
Carroll, Lewis 1
Cecil, Lord David 1, 2
Chardin, Teilhard de 1
Chekhov, Anton 1, 2
Chesterton, G.K. 1
Clairmont, Claire 1
Clare, John 1, 2, 3
Clough, Arthur Hugh 1, 2
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 1
Conrad, Joseph 1
Cowper, William 1, 2
Dante Alighieri 1, 2
Day Lewis, Cecil 1
de la Mare, Walter 1, 2
