Penelope Fitzgerald

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PF was the author of three biographies, a short-story writer, and much admired novelist of the later twentieth century, who began publishing at almost sixty. Apart from one mystery, her eight novels fall into two groups: those of contemporary life, which draw on situations of which she had direct experience, and historical novels which turn a spotlight on some intensely-imagined, precise place and moment in history. A volume of her literary essays and reviews is in print and a volume of letters is expected.

Milestones

17 December 1916

Penelope Knox (later PF ) was born in Lincoln, at the Old Palace.
Todd, Janet, editor. Dictionary of British Women Writers. Routledge.
Brown, Susan Windisch, editor. Contemporary Novelists. St James Press.
332
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

September 1975

PF was nearly sixty when she published her first book, Edward Burne-Jones : A Biography of the Pre-Raphaelite painter.
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
1976
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Harvey-Wood, Harriet. “Penelope Fitzgerald”. The Guardian, p. 22.
22

28 April 2000

PF died at the age of eighty-three, after a stroke.
Harvey-Wood, Harriet. “Penelope Fitzgerald”. The Guardian, p. 22.
22
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.

16 October 2000

PF 's last work was posthumously published: a collection entitled The Means of Escape: Stories.
Kermode, Frank. “Playing the Seraphine”. London Review of Books, p. 15.
15
Mars-Jones, Adam. “A small but perfectly formed masterpiece in miniature”. Guardian Weekly, p. 18.
18

Biography

Birth and Family

17 December 1916

Penelope Knox (later PF ) was born in Lincoln, at the Old Palace.
Todd, Janet, editor. Dictionary of British Women Writers. Routledge.
Brown, Susan Windisch, editor. Contemporary Novelists. St James Press.
332
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.