Lyndall Gordon (born 4 November 1941) is a British-based biographical and former academic writer, known for her literary biographies. She is a senior research fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Life

Born in Cape Town, she had her undergraduate studies at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

and her doctorate at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York City. She is married to pathologist, Siamon Gordon; they have two daughters. Gordon is the author of '' Eliot's Early Years'' (1977), which won the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize; ''

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

: A Writer's Life'' (1984), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; ''

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë family, Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novel ...

: A Passionate Life'' (1994), winner of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature; and ''Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft'', shortlisted for the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent publications are ''Lives Like Loaded Guns:

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

and her Family's Feuds'' (2010), which has challenged established assumptions about the poet's life; ''Shared Lives: Growing Up in 50s Cape Town'' (D. Philip Publishers, 1992); ''Divided Lives: Dreams of a Mother and a Daughter'' (London: Virago, 2014); and ''Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World'' (London: Virago, 2017). Gordon's most recent work is ''The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse'' (2022).

Works

*'' Eliot's Early Years''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1977. *; W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, *'' Eliot's New Life''. Oxford University Press, 1988 *''Shared Lives''. Norton, 1992.
''Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life''
Chatto & Windus, 1994. ; Little, Brown Book Group, 2009. *''A Private Life of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

: Two Women and His Art''. Chatto & Windus, 1998. . Also titled ''Henry James: His Women and His Art''. Virago, 2012, * * 2006. * *''Divided Lives: Dreams of a Mother and a Daughter''. London: Virago, 2014. *''Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World''. London: Virago, 2017. *"Dreams of a Mother and Daughter," in Dale Salwak, ed. ''Writers and Their Mothers''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. *''The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse''. London: 2022.

Notes

External links

Lyndall Gordon's official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Lyndall Living people South African biographers South African women biographers British women biographers English biographers University of Cape Town alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Writers from Cape Town Columbia University alumni James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients 1941 births 20th-century South African women writers 20th-century British biographers 21st-century South African women writers 21st-century British biographers Mary Wollstonecraft scholars