Literary Birthday – 17 December – Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Fitzgerald was born 17 December 1916, and died 28 April 2000.

Five Quotes

1. A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.
2. I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better if they’re about people the writer doesn’t like very much.
3. The body, then, has a mind of its own. It must follow, then, that the Mind has a body of its own, even if it’s like nothing that we can see around us, or have ever seen.
4. It’s very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren’t by any means always welcome, but at least one can’t be mistaken as to who or what they are.
5. Duty is what no-one else will do at the moment.

Penelope Fitzgerald was a Booker Prize-winning English novelist, poet, essayist and biographer. She won the Booker for Offshore.

Source for image:

Fair use

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Penelope_Fitzgerald.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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