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 St Hilda's College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon Saint, Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it ...

Life

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

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

and her doctorate at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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 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 same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

Rose Mary Crawshay Prize The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars, inaugurated in 1888 by the British Academy. Description The prize, set up in 1888, is said by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize specifically for female sch ...

; ''

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

: A Writer's Life'' (1984), which won the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

; ''

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted i ...

: A Passionate Life'' (1994), winner of the

Cheltenham Prize for Literature The Cheltenham Prize is awarded at the English Cheltenham Literature Festival to the author of any book published in the relevant year which "has received less acclaim than it deserved". Past winners *1979: Angela Carter for '' The Bloody Chamb ...

; and ''Vindication: A Life of

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

'', shortlisted for the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...

. 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, Massach ...

and her Family's Feuds'' (2010), which has challenged the 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 (2023).

Works

*''Eliot's Early Years''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been 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 Women biographers South African women writers 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 biographers 21st-century South African women writers 21st-century biographers Mary Wollstonecraft scholars