Synchronicity

Yesterday, the Library's new exhibit Literary Lives: The World of Francis Steegmuller and Shirley Hazzard opened to great fanfare. Today, Shirley Hazzard's The Bay of Noon was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize, to recognize books published in 1970 that were not eligible for consideration for the Booker. A coincidence, for sure.
















But here's the really interesting part: Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat was also on the Lost Man Booker shortlist. If you've read curator Harriet Shapiro's interview with Shirley Hazzard (published in the excellent exhibition catalog), then you also know that Muriel Spark was the one who introduced Shirley and Francis, and the rest is history, as they say.