Irish · 1919–1999
Iris Murdoch won the 1978 Booker Prize for "The Sea, The Sea" and was shortlisted three more times, establishing her as one of the twentieth century's most honored British novelists. The Irish-born philosopher wrote twenty-six novels exploring moral philosophy through fiction. Her characters navigate desire, jealousy, and the problem of good in densely populated worlds where everyone's pursuit of their own ends creates comedy and catastrophe. Murdoch died in 1999 after years of Alzheimer's disease, documented in her husband's memoir.