Lurie, Alison (1926–)

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Lurie, Alison (1926–)

American novelist and literary critic. Born Sept 3, 1926, in Chicago, IL; dau. of Harry and Bernice (Stewart) Lurie; Radcliffe College, AB, 1947; m. Jonathan Peale Bishop (professor), 1948 (div,. 1985); m. Edward Hower; children: (1st m.) 3.

At Cornell University, was a lecturer in literature (1969–73), associate professor (1973–76), then became professor of English (1976); fiction includes Love and Friendship (1962), The War Between the Tates (1974), Only Children (1979), The Truth about Lorin Jones (1988), and Women and Ghosts; works of non-fiction include The Language of Clothes (1982), Don't Tell the Grownups: Subversive Children's Literature (1990), and memoir Familiar Spirits: A Memoir of James Merrill and David Jackson (2001); edited 3 collections of folktales for children and was co-editor of 73 volume Garland Library of Children's Classics. Won Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Affairs (1984).