WRITER

Alison Lurie

1926 - 2020

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Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926 – December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Alison Lurie has received more than 224,744 page views. Her biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 20 in 2019). Alison Lurie is the 5,678th most popular writer (down from 5,139th in 2019), the 8,665th most popular biography from United States (down from 7,904th in 2019) and the 667th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 220k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 45.38

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 24

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.15

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.42

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Love and Friendship
Fiction, general
1962
Imaginary friends
City and town life, Cults, Fiction
1967
The language of clothes
Clothing and dress, Fashion, Psychology
In this exhaustive and entertaining study, Alison Lurie shows what the clothes we choose to wear say about us. Approaching clothing from four perspectives -- historical, social logical, psychological, anthropological -- she demonstrates how color, fabric and cut are not mere whims of designers or manufacturers but constitute a vocabulary and grammar as precise and full of subconscious intent as any verbal language: how our clothes announce our sex, age and class and often give important information (or misinformation) about our occupation, geographical origin, personality, opinions, tastes, sexual desires and current mood. - Back cover.
1981
Foreign Affairs
Fiction, general, Fiction, action & adventure, Fiction, romance, general
Virginia Miner, a fifty-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children’s folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel. Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague Fred Turner, a handsome, flat broke, newly separated, and thoroughly miserable young man trying to focus on his own research. Instead, he is distracted by a beautiful and unpredictable English actress and the world she belongs to. Both American, both abroad, and both achingly lonely, Vinnie and Fred play out their confused alienation and dizzying romantic liaisons in Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Smartly written, poignant, and witty, Foreign Affairs remains an enduring comic masterpiece.
1984
Only children
Fiction, Depressions, Fourth of July
1979
The nowhere city
Fiction in English, Marriage, Fiction
Caustic condemnation of Los Angeles as seen through the experiences of a young writer and his wife from Massachusetts.
1965

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Alison Lurie ranks 5,678 out of 7,302. Before her are Marmaduke Pickthall, James Hogg, William Michael Rossetti, Ernest Dowson, Martin Litchfield West, and You Xie. After her are Hugh Walpole, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Gwendolyn Brooks, Herberto Hélder, Cynthia McLeod, and Lew Rockwell.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1926, Alison Lurie ranks 417. Before her are W. Michael Blumenthal, Géza Kádas, Rosa Taikon, A. N. R. Robinson, John Gardner, and John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough. After her are Nikos Koundouros, Tom Tryon, Conrad Hall, Darleane C. Hoffman, H. R. Haldeman, and Ralph Abernathy. Among people deceased in 2020, Alison Lurie ranks 553. Before her are Abby Dalton, Pedro Pablo León, Willi Holdorf, Giuliana Minuzzo, Volodymyr Troshkin, and Sapardi Djoko Damono. After her are Stephen F. Cohen, Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Wolfgang Hofmann, and Anthony Soter Fernandez.

Others Born in 1926

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Others Deceased in 2020

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Alison Lurie ranks 8,665 out of 20,380. Before her are Alexander Courage (1919), Liz Torres (1947), Don Patinkin (1922), Steve Franken (1932), Walt Ader (1913), and Iva Toguri D'Aquino (1916). After her are Kevin Dillon (1965), Wallace Smith Broecker (1931), Ray Anthony (1922), Jack Wagner (1959), Rufus Wilmot Griswold (1815), and Gwendolyn Brooks (1917).

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Alison Lurie ranks 667. Before her are Kate Wilhelm (1928), MacKenzie Scott (1970), William Blum (1933), Michael Shermer (1954), Kevin Kelly (1952), and Edmund White (1940). After her are Rufus Wilmot Griswold (1815), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917), Lew Rockwell (1944), Donald Richie (1924), John Holt (1923), and Earl Derr Biggers (1884).

American born Writers

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