Art Historian and Booker Prize-Winning Novelist Anita Brookner Dies at 87

Anita Brookner, an accomplished art historian and celebrated novelist, has passed away at age 87. She made history by becoming the first woman appointed as Slade professor of art at Cambridge University. Brookner's academic career focused on French Romanticism, and she advanced to Reader at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1977, remaining there until retiring in 1988. Her literary achievements include winning the prestigious Booker Prize in 1984 for her novel Hotel du Lac, which was published that same year. Brookner began her fiction writing career relatively late, publishing her first novel A Start in Life at age 53 in 1981. In recognition of her contributions, she was awarded a CBE in 1990. The Guardian reported her death.