Curriculum Vitae A Volume of Autobiography

It is no surprise that one of Muriel Spark#xE2;#xAC;"s most lively and entertaining workswould be her own memoir, Curriculum Vitae. Born to a Scottish Jewish fatherand an English Presbyterian mother, Spark describes her childhood in 1930sEdinburgh in brief, dazzling anecdotes. In one she recalls a cherished schoolteacher,Christina Kay, who would later be used as the prototype for MissJean Brodie. Spark boldly details her disastrous first marriage to SydneyOswald Spark (S.O.S.) #xE2;#xAC;#x1D; himself thirty-two, she just nineteen #xE2;#xAC;#x1D; whom she followedto Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and left behind to return to England. Inthe midst of WWII, Spark took a bizarre position working in the disinformationcampaign of the British Secret Service, eliciting information from GermanPOWs to combat Nazi propaganda. She later moved to the Poetry Society ofLondon, where she mingled with literati and other intellectuals, befriended bysome (such as Graham Greene, an early supporter of her work) and sparringwith others. We experience Spark#xE2;#xAC;"s joy with the publication of her firstnovel, The Comforters, her trials with other writers#xE2;#xAC;" envy, and her emergence asthe most brilliant femme fatale of 20th-century English literature.