Brigid Brophy
A fiercely intellectual novelist and critic who weaponized her wit in battles for animal rights, humanism, and sexual freedom.
1929–1995 (age 66)·English author, literary critic and polemicist·Birthday: June 12·The Silent Generation
Biography
Brigid Brophy entered the literary scene as a precocious talent and left it as a formidable and often controversial force. Her novels, like 'Hackenfeller's Ape' and 'The Snow Ball,' were intellectually playful and formally inventive, dissecting sexuality and society with a sharp, erudite edge. But her influence stretched far beyond the page. Brophy was a polemicist of the first order, a frequent and dazzling presence on television and in newspapers, arguing with equal fervor for the cause of animal rights—she was a committed vegetarian and helped found the Animal Aid organization—and for the decriminalization of homosexuality. She co-authored 'Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without,' a delightfully provocative assault on canonical sacred cows. Living openly with her lifelong partner, the novelist Maureen Duffy, Brophy combined a fierce private integrity with very public campaigns, using her brilliant, restless mind to challenge complacency in art, ethics, and law.
The Silent Generation
1928–1945
Born between the Depression and the end of WWII. Too young to fight, old enough to remember. They became the conformist middle managers of the 1950s — and the civil rights leaders who quietly dismantled Jim Crow.
Brigid was born in 1929, placing them squarely in The Silent Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Brigid Was Born
The biggest hits of 1929
#1 Movie
The Broadway Melody
Best Picture
The Broadway Melody
Brigid's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1929Born
Wall Street crashes, triggering the Great Depression
Gas: $0.21/galPresident: Herbert Hoover"Singin' in the Rain" — Cliff EdwardsBest Picture: The Broadway Melody
1934Started school
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stars Fell on Alabama" — Jack TeagardenBest Picture: It Happened One Night
1942Became a teenager
Battle of Midway turns the tide in the Pacific
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,175Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"White Christmas" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Mrs. Miniver
1945Could drive
WWII ends; atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $4,600Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Sentimental Journey" — Les Brown & Doris DayBest Picture: The Lost Weekend
1947Could vote
India gains independence; the Dead Sea Scrolls found
Gas: $0.23/galHome: $6,600Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Near You" — Francis CraigBest Picture: Gentleman's Agreement
1950Turned 21
Korean War begins
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,354Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Goodnight Irene" — Gordon Jenkins & The WeaversBest Picture: All About Eve
1959Turned 30
Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $12,400Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"The Battle of New Orleans" — Johnny HortonBest Picture: Ben-Hur
1969Turned 40
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1979Turned 50
Iran hostage crisis begins; Three Mile Island accident
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $37,900Min wage: $2.90/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"My Sharona" — The KnackBest Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
1989Turned 60
Berlin Wall falls; Tiananmen Square protests
Gas: $1.00/galHome: $79,100Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: George H.W. Bush"Look Away" — ChicagoBest Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
1995Died at 66
Oklahoma City bombing; Windows 95 released
Gas: $1.15/galHome: $96,500Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Gangsta's Paradise" — CoolioBest Picture: Braveheart
Key Achievements
- Published the influential critical work 'Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without' (1967), co-authored with Michael Levey and Charles Osborne.
- Was a foundational campaigner for animal rights in the UK, helping to establish the group Animal Aid in 1977.
- Wrote the early and explicit lesbian novel 'In Transit' (1969), a experimental work that played with language and identity.
- Served as a key voice in the campaign for Public Lending Right, securing payments to authors when their books are borrowed from libraries.
Did You Know?
She read Homer in the original Greek by the age of nine.
Brophy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984 but continued to write and campaign for years afterward.
She was a passionate opera enthusiast and wrote a well-regarded book on Mozart.
Her father, John Brophy, was also a novelist, and she published her first novel, 'Hackenfeller's Ape,' at age 24.
“The conviction that we are right is not a good reason for insisting that everyone else is wrong.”
