Elizabeth Bowen was born Elizabeth Dorothea Cole in Dublin in 1899, taking her literary name from the family home Bowen’s Court, in County Cork.
Her novels include Encounters (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1923); The Hotel (London, Constable, 1927); The Last September (Constable, 1929); Friends and Relations (Constable, 1931); To the North (London, Gollancz, 1932); The House in Paris (Gollancz, 1935); The Death of the Heart (Gollancz, 1936); The Heat of the Day (London, Jonathan Cape, 1949); A World of Love (Jonathan Cape, 1955); The Little Girls (Jonathan Cape, 1964); The Good Tiger (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965); and Eva Trout (Alfred A. Knopf, 1968).
Her short story collections include Ann Lee’s and Other Stories (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1926); Joining Charles and Other Stories (London, Constable, 1929); The Cat Jumps and Other Stories (London, Gollancz, 1934); The Demon Lover and Other Stories (London, Jonathan Cape, 1945); Stories by Elizabeth Bowen (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959); and A Day in the Dark and Other Stories (Jonathan Cape, 1965).
Her non-fiction includes Look At All Those Roses (London, Gollancz, 1941); Bowen’s Court (London, Longmans Green, 1942); Seven Winters: Memories of a Dublin Childhood (Dublin, The Cuala Press, 1942); Anthony Trollope: A New Judgement (New York & London, Oxford University Press, 1946); Why Do I Write: An Exchange of Views between Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V.S. Pritchett (London, Percival Marshall, 1948); Collected Impressions (Longmans Green, 1950); The Shelbourne: A Centre in Dublin Life for More Than A Century(London, George G. Harrap, 1951); A Time in Rome (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1960); Afterthought: Pieces About Writing (London, Longmans Green, 1962); and The Mulberry Tree, (London, Vintage, 1999).
Elizabeth Bowen died in London in 1973 and is buried in Cork.
Elizabeth Bowen 1899-1973
Elizabeth Bowen discusses the importance of character to novels and the different ways that authors can create characterisation. – BBC Radio Archive, first broadcast 1956.
Elizabeth Bowen: A Fan’s Notes
Elizabeth Bowen at The National Library of Ireland