Women have been pioneers in the development of all literary genres - from poetry to science fiction and everything in between. Today, we are taking a look at 5 influential female writers who inspire our members and were at the forefront of their respective genres. Follow the links at the end of the article to learn more about each author!
1. Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, in 1797. She was surrounded by tragedy her whole life, starting early on with the death of her mother shortly after her birth. This led to her father’s remarriage that created an unfair living situation for Mary, who was denied formal education while her stepsister was sent to boarding school. Despite this, Mary was inspired by her mother’s rather progressive writings and took advantage of having full access to her father’s vast library.
At 16, Mary eloped with her future husband, Percy Shlley and the couple spent a summer in Switzerland where she wrote the acclaimed Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. The work was written for an impromptu ghost-writing contest on a stormy June night in 1816 and is often referred to as the first true work of science-fiction. Eventually Percy and Mary gave birth to their son, Percy Florence, who was the only child to live to adulthood. Not long after, Mary’s husband died in 1822 after a tragic drowning and Mary herself died of brain cancer in 1851, at age 53, in the same city she was born.
Though gone for over 170 years, Mary Shelley’s legacy serves to remind us that women have been pioneers in the development of all genres, including the typically male-dominated science fiction genre. At its surface, Frankenstein is a Gothic novel, influenced by the experiments of Luigi Galvani, it was concerned with the destructive nature of power when allied to wealth This struggle between a monster and its creator has been an enduring part of popular culture and her novel laid the framework for other archetypes such as the mad scientist and the misunderstood creature. In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in a film adaptation of Shelley's novel. Shelley's monster lives on in such modern thrillers as I, Frankenstein (2013) as well.
2. Agatha Christie
Born in 1890 in Torquay England, Agatha Christie grew up being homeschooled by her father, which was unusual for the time. Her father’s large library encouraged Agatha to find entertainment in literature. She taught herself to read by the age of five and began writing stories herself shortly after. By the time she was 21, Christie was a published author. She married her first husband, Archie, on Christmas Eve in 1914, and traveled with him for ten months in 1922. This trip and the people she met on it would later inspire plots and characters of her novels.
In 1926, Archie Christie admitted to Agatha that he had taken a mistress. On top of the recent tragedy of her mother’s passing and struggling with writer’s block when her publisher was expecting a new novel, Agatha left her home late one night, and went missing for 10 days. She was found at a hotel in South Africa, using the name of her husband’s mistress. After Agatha recovered, she and Archie divorced.
In 1928, Christie went on a solo journey on The Orient Express. She had always wanted to travel on the train, though going by herself was never the plan. Nevertheless, her trip made for plenty of adventures and even led her to meet her second and last husband Max Wooley. Agatha and Max had plenty of adventures of their own which further inspired many of the plots and characters of Christie’s impressive portfolio.
Agatha Christie is credited with perfecting the genre of detective fiction and making classic detective stories what they are today. She created the iconic characters of Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Peroit, detectives you will encounter in many of her novels and stories. Her expansive collection of novels and short stories brought her the deserving titles of “Queen of Mystery” and “Queen of Crime.” Christie is also the best-selling author of all time, only out-sold by Shakespeare and the Bible.
3. Maya Angelou (TW: S/A)
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She grew up in Stamps, Arkansas and experienced racial injustice, prejudice, and discrimination. When Angelou was 7, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. As vengeance for her assault, her uncles killed the boyfriend. Maya Angelou suffered extreme trauma afterwards and spent years living as a mute.
In her college years, Angelou received a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School. She moved to San Francisco during World War II and became the first Black female cable car conductor — a job she held only briefly. In the mid 1950’s, Angelou began to gain notoriety as a performer. She was a member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist. Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC's northern coordinator.
Maya Angelou was not only a talented actress and activist, she was also an incredible writer. One of her most famous works, On the Pulse of Morning, was recited at President Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January 1993. The occasion marked the first inaugural recitation since 1961 when Robert Frost delivered his poem "The Gift Outright" at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word album) for the audio version of the poem.
In 1969, Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The memoir details her childhood and young adult years, making history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. After publishing Caged Bird, Angelou broke new ground artistically, educationally and socially with her drama Georgia, Georgia in 1972, which made her the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced.
After experiencing health issues for a number of years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. President Barack Obama also issued a statement about Angelou, calling her "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman." Angelou "had the ability to remind us that we are all God's children; that we all have something to offer," he wrote. In May 2021, it was announced that Angelou will be one of the first women to be commemorated with a new series of quarters from the U.S. Mint.
4. Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Morrison was an American writer noted for her examination of the Black experience. She was also the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Morrison grew up in a semi-integrated area but racial discrimination was still a constant threat.
During her college years, Morrison experienced segregation in a new way. She saw how racial hierarchy divided people of color based on their skin tone. The college allowed her to make connections with other writers and activists in the community and she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She went on to earn the Master of Arts in English, and after that, Morrison became an English professor. After teaching at Howard University for seven years, Morrison became an editor for the textbook division of Random House in Syracuse, New York. She then transferred to another branch and began editing fiction books by African-American authors.
Toni Morrison published her first book, The Bluest Eye in 1970 when she was 39 years old. It explores a young African American girl obsessed by white standards of beauty. The book, controversial at the time, did not sell well when first published. That did not stop Morrison though, as she published her second book, Sula, three years later. Toni Morrison became a household name by her third book, and ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her fourth book, Beloved (1987). This novel was based on the true story of an African-American enslaved woman. It was even adapted into a film in 1998 that Oprah Winfrey co-produced and starred in.
Morrison influenced many writers and artists as she focused on African American life and with her certain commentary on race relations throughout her novels. She spoke out against censorship in 2009 after one of her books was banned at a highschool in Michigan. The central theme of Morrison’s novels is the Black American experience. Her characters throughout her novels struggle to find themselves and their cultural identity. Two months before her death, a documentary about her life was released called Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019).
5. Sylvia Plath (TW: Mental health, Suicide)
Sylvia Plath was an American novelist and poet born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. She received most of her notoriety after she tragically committed suicide in 1963. Her poetry collection, The Bell Jar (1963), revealed troubles in her marriage and her struggles with mental health. Plath won the Pulitzer prize in 1982 for her work Collected Poems. She was the first person to win the award after their death.
Plath used her writing to document the major events of her own life as well as the historical events she experienced. Some of the events she documented in her writing were World War II, The Rosenberg trials, and her witness of the overall injustices suffered by women during her time. She also gives accounts of the use of electroshock therapy and the impact it had on her subsequent suicide attempts.
Sylvia Plath’s contribution to literature derives from the literary excellence of her writing, as her works show the plight of mid-twentieth century women. Her significance comes from her role as a poet and the ways in which her writing opened the door for exploration of a feminist-martyr to patriarchal society, as well as the treatment of psychiatric patients. She was able to record the injustices of sex-based roles and psychological treatment, making her work crucial to American history.
Plath unknowingly created a new style of recording social and cultural history through personal experience and metaphor as a great poet of American history. To this day, her honest and confessional style empowers women struggling with their own mental health to talk about their emotions and be honest about their experiences.
Of course this list does not even scratch the surface of the incredible women who have built literature into what it is today. If we included them all, it would be nearly endless. However, we wanted to highlight some of the women who inspire us to write, and made it possible for us to do so. If you know someone we missed, please leave a comment on our most recent Instagram post @ladyliteracybc, send us a dm, or email us at ladyliteracybookclub.com. We would love to hear who inspires you to be a woman in literature!
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