Writers can come in many forms, and one of them is female. While many historical scholars may mainly focus on the men who wrote, they were not alone. There are women writers too that made their historic mark on society. As we all know, there are big names lying throughout history. Some of who created some of the masterpieces that we know and love today. They had their works and quirks, giving them a distinct edge. This gave light to the influences that guided them to make them who they are. It was also reflected in their writings, whatever form it may have been. I am going to list the 10 most amazing and famous female writers.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
1. Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American short-story writer, poet, and novelist. She is best known for her works being confessional poetry. The theme was often involving feminist martyrs in the face of a patriarchal society. Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932, and from an early age found interest in writing. She even started writing and had published her first poem in 1940 at the age of 8. Plath grew up in an academic family, her father being a biologist and her mother a short-hand teacher. Her mother was exceptionally academic herself. She went on to write many notable works, many of which you have probably heard of. This includes: The Bell Jar, her collections Ariel and The Colossus and Other Poems, Lady Lazarus, and Daddy.
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Plath was severely depressed, having had been hospitalized and treated with electroshock therapy, especially in her final year of being alive. After having had two children and a family, her abusive poet husband Ted Hughes was becoming further estranged. Plath became more involved in her writing in her last year, and the prominent theme had become more about death. Plath, in London, later committed suicide by keeping her head in a gas oven turned on and dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. Her famous quote written, “Dying/ Is an art, like everything else./ I do it exceptionally well.” rings all the more true now.
2. Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Shelley, born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, was an English novelist who is famous for her works involving themes of science fiction. Shelley was born in London, England in 1797 to political philosopher William Godwin and famous feminist and writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary, her mother, was also an author and wrote books, including The Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Sadly, her mother died shortly after her birth, so her father was left to care for her and her maternal half-sister on his own.
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Mary Shelley grew up in a tumultuous household after her father re-married, and while Shelly did not have a formal education, she was exposed to many books in her father’s extensive library. Since she enjoyed reading and writing, she began to write her own works as a creative outlet. She later moved to Scotland, traveled Europe, and married fellow writer and romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a devoted student of Mary’s father. Their marriage, rife with issues and adultery, later ended when Percy drowned in 1822. She is famously known for her novels, including epic Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
3. J.K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling, known by her pen name J.K. Rowling, is a British author known for her works of fiction and fantasy, including the famous Harry Potter book series. Rowling was born in Yates, England in 1965 to a chemist mother and engineer father. Since her mother was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and died, Rowling has been involved with many charities for various causes, including the illness her mother died from, including some charities during the coronavirus pandemic. The hate for transgender people seems strangely out of place though.
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She has wanted to be a writer since she was a young girl, and she conceived of Harry Potter in 1990. Other works of hers include companion volumes Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and some crime novels featuring Cormoran Strike such as The Cuckoo’s Calling, among many more. She then became a screenwriter for Fantastic Beasts in 2016 and the sequel that followed. While she has had a few controversial views on a few subjects, she remains an influential author to this day.
4. Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf, nee Stephens, was a prolific English writer born in London, England in 1882. Woolf was born to famous, privileged and well-established parents, Sir Leslie Stephens and Julie Prinsep Jackson, and she was well known for her stream of consciousness, feminist novels and modernistic classics. A list of her works includes The Voyage Out, Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and Orlando, A Room of One’s Own, and Three Guineas.
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Since her parents were freethinking, including her mother being a super sexy model, Woolf began her writing career early, and later on established her first novel in 1915 at 33 years old. She ended up married to Leonard Woolf, a political theorist, and even had an affair. All of the writer affairs aside, later on when the World Wars were going on, especially the second one, her moods got worse. She had also been dealing with depression and severe mood swings, later on committing suicide during World War 2 in 1941 by drowning herself.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
5. Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet and writer born in Amherst, Massachusetts to Emily and Edward Dickinson in 1830. Although more successful posthumously, she is famously known for her eccentric personality and quirky, enigmatic, and experimental poetry. Both of her parents were interesting bedfellows and highly educated, and this obviously help set her on the right path. Her father served in congress, her mother was a house keeper, and her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, had helped create Amherst College.
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Dickinson, along with Walt Whitman, were the two great poets of their time in America. Dickinson had written nearly 1800 poems by the time of her death. However, her number of poems published was barely any until after her death. Not only did she question religion, she earned her stars for being an eccentric child, along with her siblings. Most of her interesting social life was carried out by her unusual writing style through messages, especially later on in life. She later died of then Bright’s disease — later ruled severe primary hypertension — in 1886, but she lives on as a ghost, so be sure to look slowly behind you.
6. Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English writer and novelist born in 1775 in Steventon, England. Austen is well known for her depiction of mannered English middle-class life. This life was during the late seventeen and early eighteen hundreds, becoming classics later on. Her parents seemed fairly savvy, including her mother. Her mother was said to have a wit that seemed to have passed on.
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Austen had four novels published by the time of her death. These including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. She also had posthumous releases as well that included Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. She began writing as early as 1787, starting fairly young. These included plays, verses and short-stories, giving understanding to her parody and and understanding of life for women back then.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
7. Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie was an English writer born in Devon, England in 1890 to an upper-middle class family like all good writers are. Christie enjoyed making crime novels, and as a child was encouraged to write by her parents. She enjoyed creating characters and fantasy play, and had ambitions to be a musician. Many of her novels had recurring characters, such as Hercules Poirot and Miss Marple, two of the most famous characters in writing history.
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Her intrigue was created by what made her famous, her fictional detective and crime and disappearance novels, including The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder at the Vicarage, Partners in Crime and Sad Cypress, among over 60 other novels and 14 short-story collections. She also wrote the world’s longest play, The Mousetrap, which was often performed for nearly seventy years. Agatha went on to sell over 2 billion copies of her books and is considered on of, if not the the best-selling author(s) of all time.
8. George Eliot
George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evans, was an English writer and Victorian novelist born in Warwickshire, England in 1819 and. Eliot, which was her pen name, grew into a pious young girl, and she would dress to the nines and engaged in good work for others. She is famous for her method of psychological analysis, which is a characteristic of modern fiction. Many of her major works include Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middle March, and Daniel Deronda. Eliot later became despondent towards the very faith she grew accustomed to when faced with science. There is where much of her lyrical journey began, with this change.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
9. Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand, born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, was a Russian-American writer, philosopher and author born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. Rand along with her father were forcibly removed from their shop to live in poverty in Crimea. This influenced her outlook on government overreach. Soon after, she went to school then America to visit family and share what she had with the world.
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Ayn was quite the cultural icon, especially with her wildly controversial philosophical views on objectivism and libertarianism. Rand was also an avowed atheist, and many of these views she adopted are reflected in themes in her books. Her greatest works included The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. You have probably heard of them, and much of this, along with her philosophy, were taught by her through other forms like courses and lectures. (Link 9)
10 Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte
The Bronte sisters were English writers and novelists born in Thornton, England in the early nineteenth century. Their family start was rough, with their mother dying shortly after Anne’s birth in 1821. Shortly after, two other sisters passed away in childhood. They all began writing at an early age, leaving a mark on each other. They all influenced each other while having been left isolated at home by themselves. The sisters ended up leaving and schooling at different times and places. Unfortunately, their brother Branwell had become an alcoholic and died of tuberculosis in 1848.
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They later went by their pseudonyms: Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell. With various forms of success, Anne’s “Agnes Grey” and Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” were published in 1847, with Charlotte’s book performing well. Anne’s second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” were both published in 1848. Anne’s book sold well, but Wuthering Heights did not, and this is where it starts to go south. Emily and Anna died soon after in 1848 and 1849, respectively, but Charlotte went on for several more years, becoming successful, but later she died of tuberculosis like everyone else did.
The 10 Amazing and Most Famous Female Writers
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Honorable Mentions: Toni Morrison w/ “The Bluest Eye” and “Songs of Solomon” (winning her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994), Margaret Atwood, Louis May Alcott, Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, and Edith Wharton
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Godspeed
