was born on 20 November 1923 in Springs, a small mining town near Johannesburg in South Africa, which turned out to be the setting for Gordimer's first novel, The Lying Days (1953). Her father was a Jewish jeweler originally from Latvia and her mother of British descent. She was educated in a convent school and she spent a year at Witwaterstrand University, Johannesburg without taking a degree. She has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe, and North America, where she has often. undertaken lecture tours, but has continued to live in Joha ....