by Muriel Spark

Born in 1918 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Muriel Spark (née Camberg) was the daughter of Bernard and Sarah Elizabeth Maud Camberg. Muriel’s father was Jewish, her mother Protestant. Educated at the James Gillespie’s School in Edinburgh, Muriel married S. O. Spark in 1937, and the couple moved to Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). The marriage ended in divorce, but Spark retained her ex-husband’s surname when she returned to Britain in 1944. In the mid-to-late 1940s, Spark became editor of the Poetry Review, then founded her own literary journal, Forum, which lasted only two issues. In 1950 she edited another journal, European Affairs, and around this time began writing short stories, many of which were based on her experiences in Africa. Spark took an increasing interest in Catholicism, particularly in the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and joined...