The acquisition of this exceptional collection of letters from Iris Murdoch to Sir Leo Pliatzky, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Trade and knighted in 1977, will ensure that important documents illustrating the literary, political and philosophical zeitgeist of mid to late twentieth century Europe will now remain in the UK, be preserved to the highest international standards and made available to scholars. Further study of Murdoch’s work in the light of these letters will provide future biographers with an insight into a relationship with a man who became a powerful figure in British society and politics, and which lasted from her Oxford days until the late 1970s. The letters will also contribute towards a clearer picture of the relationship between Murdoch’s life and her art, because she consulted Pliatzky extensively in her research into the civil service and Judaism. Philosophically the letters will challenge Murdoch scholarship to acknowledge the unconventional morality displayed in the letters, which not only problematize Murdoch’s moral philosophy but also invite reconsideration of its efficacy in the light of how her life was lived in conflict with the moral demands she makes on her readers.
