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Marilynne Robinson

マリリン・ロビンソン

Marilynne Robinson

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1943-11-26 （Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Congregationalist (raised Presbyterian earlier)
Residence History
Iowa City, Iowa (faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop) → Northern California (residence) → Upstate New York (residence)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Essayist, Professor
Active Years
1979-
Affiliations
University of Iowa (Iowa Writers' Workshop), Amherst College (visiting), University of Massachusetts Amherst (visiting), University of Oxford (fellowships/lectures), University of Cambridge (lectures/fellow)
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow), American Academy of Arts and Letters (member)
Influenced By
John Hawkes, John Calvin
Influenced
Nominations
2011 Man Booker International Prize nominee, 2013 Man Booker International Prize nominee

Education

Brown University (Pembroke College)
English
Degree: BA (magna cum laude)
Period: 1962–1966
Year of Graduation: 1966
Country: United States
Graduated magna cum laude; elected to Phi Beta Kappa
University of Washington
English
Degree: PhD
Period: 1970s (〜1977)
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: United States
PhD in English

Awards

PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
1982
Work: Housekeeping
Organization: PEN/Hemingway Award committee
Result: winner
National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
2004
Work: Gilead
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: winner
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2005
Work: Gilead
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: winner
Orange Prize for Fiction (Women's Prize for Fiction)
2009
Work: Home
Organization: Women's Prize for Fiction
Result: winner
National Humanities Medal
2012
Organization: United States (National Humanities Medal)
Result: winner
Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
2016
Organization: Library of Congress
Result: winner
Grawemeyer Award in Religion
2006
Organization: University of Louisville (Grawemeyer Award)
Result: winner
Park Kyong-ni Prize
2013
Organization: Park Kyong-ni Prize Foundation
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Housekeeping

1980 Novel

A novel about solitude, family and loss set in a small lakeside town; follows the lives of two sisters and questions of belonging.

solitudefamilybelongingnature and memory
Adaptations
  • [Film] Housekeeping / ビル・フォーサイス (Bill Forsyth) (1987)

Gilead

2004 Novel (epistolary)

Told as a letter from an aging Congregationalist minister to his young son, the novel meditates on faith, family history and forgiveness. Pulitzer Prize winner.

faithforgivenessfamily historydeath and memory

Home

2008 Novel

A companion to Gilead set in the same town; explores family, return, and reconciliation from another perspective.

homecomingfamilyreconciliation

Lila

2014 Novel

A companion to Gilead focusing on Lila, her background and the development of her faith.

faithredemption of the pastloneliness

Jack

2020 Novel

Centers on Jack Boughton of the Gilead novels; examines American social history and personal struggles through his perspective.

social marginalizationforgivenessfamily

Bibliography

  • Housekeeping (1980)
  • Gilead (2004)
  • Home (2008)
  • Lila (2014)
  • Jack (2020)
  • Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (1989)
  • The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998)
  • Absence of Mind (2010)
  • When I Was a Child I Read Books (2012)
  • The Givenness of Things (2015)
  • What Are We Doing Here? (2018)
  • Reading Genesis (2024)

Adaptations

  • Housekeeping (film, 1987)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical, contemplative prosequiet, reflective narration with theological and philosophical depth
Recurring Motifs
faith and forgivenessfamily and kinshiprural life and landscapememory and loss

Legacy

Recognized as a major voice in contemporary American literature; praised for deep explorations of faith, ethics and American history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other major awards, and recipient of many academic honors and honorary degrees.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters

Archives

  • Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Marilynne Robinson Papers)

Quotes

  • "that reservoir of goodness, beyond, and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things."
    Source: Quoted by President Barack Obama in a eulogy (2015) (2015)

Trivia

  • She wrote much of Housekeeping in the evenings while her children slept.
  • Named to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list in 2016.
  • Her brother is art historian David Summers.
  • Taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop from 1991 until retiring in 2016.