Muriel Spark is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland who has been a professional writer since the 1940's. She has written 15 novels, three volumes of poetry, several nonfiction studies, and numerous short stories, essays, and reviews. Her earliest work was for the British political intelligence office at the end of the Second World War and by the early 1950's, Spark was recognized as a poet and critic, although she had not yet produced any serious fiction. The winning of a fiction-writing contest in 1951 and the encouragement of her publisher led to her career as a novelist. Her first novel, The Comforters, was published in 1957. Since then she has written 17 novels, many of which are influenced by her religious views (she converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 1950's) and most of which have been well-received by public and critics. Several of her novels have been adapted for the stage, film, and television, the best-known being The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) which appeared on Broadway and in a film version.