Sara Paretsky

Kate Watson (Cardiff University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 8 Jun 1947
Activity 1981-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective

Cultural Identities

Jewish American

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Essayist

Resources

Paretsky's Works

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Born in 1947 in Ames, Iowa, Sara Paretsky spent her early life in Lawrence, Kansas. Part of a Jewish family, she was the only daughter out of five children, and was assigned a stereotypically female place and role within the household. P. D. James has noted that

Both [of her] parents were well educated and highly intelligent, both actively worked for social justice, but paradoxically kept their only daughter in emotional and educational subjection. From the age of seven she baked for her father and brothers every Saturday, cleaned the house and was a nanny to the younger boys. The sexual discrimination extended from major parental decisions to petty restrictions. (James)

Both [of her] parents were well educated and highly intelligent, both actively worked for social justice, but…

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1379 words

Citation: Watson, Kate. "Sara Paretsky". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12084, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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