SOURCE: Newman, Judith. “An Overview of the Life and Career of Nadine Gordimer.” In Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 161, edited by Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group, 2002.

In the following essay, Newman discusses Gordimer's life, career, awards and recognition, and overall body of work, while also examining the era in which Gordimer wrote and the critical reception of her works.

Chronology

The following chronology provides a quick overview of Gordimer's life and writing career. In-depth explication of these subjects is presented in the “Criticism” section of this entry.

1923: Nadine Gordimer is born on 20 November in the mining town of Springs, near Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the second daughter of Isidore Gordimer, a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant who had come to South Africa at the age of thirteen and worked as a watch repairer and jeweler, and Nan Myers Gordimer, who immigrated to South...