Events for Women

Writing under the pen name Daniel Stern, Marie d'Agoult was a frequent contributor to the French liberal opposition press of the 1840s. Her three volume Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 remains her best-known work.

The Brontë Code...

Charlotte Brontë's (1816-1854) and her sisters had a wrote a notice. "Acton Bell" was the pen name of Anne Brontë and "Ellis Bell" was Emily Brontë. Charlotte herself wrote as "Currer Bell" and so signed herself to the "notice". Charlotte explained why they chose these names: "... Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine"—we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise."

Georgie was one really hot... 

So it seems as Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin (1804-1876), French Romantic writer, was noted for her numerous love affairs with such prominent figures as Prosper Merimée, Alfred de Musset, Frédéric Chopin, Alexandre Manceau and others. The painter Eugène Delacroix did not take her very seriously, but Alexander Herzen and Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand were inspired of her work. Widespread critical attention accompanied the publication of most of George Sand's novels from INDIANA (1832), a story of a naive, love-starved woman abused by her much older husband and deceived by a selfish seducer. Sand's works influenced among others Fedor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoi, Gustave Flaubert, and Marcel Proust. In 1842, the English critic George Henry Lewes wrote that Sand was ''the most remarkable writer of the present century.''

Aah Haa!...another George!

Mary Ann or Marian Evans, 1819–80, English novelist, one of the great English novelists, she was reared in a strict atmosphere of evangelical Protestantism but eventually rebelled and renounced organized religion totally. Writing about life in small rural towns, George Eliot was primarily concerned with the responsibility that people assume for their lives and with the moral choices they must inevitably make. Although highly serious, her novels are marked by compassion and a subtle humor.

Little "Mistaken Identity"...

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author of Little Women and  "pot-boiler" writer under the name of A.M. Barnard. Books include "The Abbot's Ghost," "The Marble Woman", and "Behind a Mask". Why Louisa used the pen name of A.M. Barnard is still a mystery, but one explanation is that the initials A.M. may have come from her mother's name, Abigail May, and the Barnard may have come from a friend of the family and a famous educator, Henry Barnard.

One very interesting basket of names...

Metta Victoria Full Victor (1831-1885) Pen Names: Corinne Cushman, Eleanor Lee Edwards, Metta Fuller, Walter T. Gray, Mrs. Orrin James, Rose Kennedy, Louis LeGrand, Mrs. Mark Peabody, Seeley Register, The Singing Sybil, Mrs. Henry Thomas.

One of her most important contributions to American literature was The Dead Letter, published in 1864 under the pen name Seeley Register, and credited as the first detective novel. Her later years were devoted to humor and sensational romances. Her first novel for Beadle & Adams in 1861 was Maum Guinea, an anti-slavery novel enjoyed by both Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ward Beecher, which was perhaps as popular at the time as its more famous counterpart, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Not sure about the pen name...start with "John"

Pearl Richards (Mary Teresa Craigie) was born on November 3, 1867 in Boston Massachusetts but was raised in England. In February 1887 she married Mr. Reginald Walpole Craigie a well-connected Englishman. Mrs. Craigie divorced her husband soon after the birth of their only son. In 1892 she converted to Roman Catholicism and added Mary Teresa to her name.

Her first literary work had been published in 1891 under the pseudonym John Oliver Hobbes. Her best-known works were The School for Saints and its sequel Robert Orange. Mrs. Craigie loved the theater and wrote plays as well as novels. She died on August 13, 1906 at the height of her fame.

Coffee anyone?

Baroness Karen Blixen, 1885–1962, Danish author, and Isak Dinesen were one and the same. In 1914 she married Baron Blixen and went to live in British East Africa, on a coffee plantation. She was divorced in 1921 and took over the management of the plantation where she lived until 1931, when falling coffee prices forced her to return to Denmark. From her experiences she wrote her autobiographical Out of Africa (1937), which became a successful film. Dinesen is best known for her tales, many of which have eerie, supernatural elements. Her works include Seven Gothic Tales (1934), Winter's Tales (1943), Last Tales (1957), and Anecdotes of Destiny (1958). Writing despite severe illness, Dinesen finished the African sketches Shadows on the Grass in 1960.

Meet an Aussie author...

Henry Handel Richardson, is none other than Ethel Richardson Robertson, 1870–1946, Australian novelist. Her years of study at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, were reflected in her book The Getting of Wisdom (1910). After studying piano at Leipzig she turned to writing, living mainly in Germany until 1903 and then in England. Her first novel, Maurice Guest (1908), is the story of a music student's disastrous infatuation. The trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930), which presents an accurate and outstanding picture of Australian life, is considered her major work. Her writing, clear and austere in style, has been characterized as combining romantic insights with scientific attention to detail.

Who was the Crook?

Anthony Gilbert was Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973),a prolific British mystery writer, a woman writing under a man's name, whose most famous creation is lawyer-detective Arthur G. Crook. For many years Gilbert's identity was kept secret, and most readers assumed that the author was a man. Distinctive for Gilbert's novels is skillful plotting, lively supporting characters, entertaining dialogue, and clever action without exaggerating violence. She wrote straight fiction - mostly with a Victorian flavor - under the pseudonym of Anne Meredith.

Oops...James was a gal

James Tiptree, Jr (1915 – 1987) was the pen name of science fiction author Alice Sheldon. She later also wrote under the pseudonym Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree/Sheldon was most notable for breaking down the barriers between perceived "male writing" and "female writing."  Unsure what to do with her new degrees and her new/old careers, Sheldon began to write. She adopted the pseudonym of James Tiptree, Jr. in 1968 because "I was tired of always being the first woman in some damn profession..." The name "Tiptree" came from a jar of marmalade.

The imposture was successful until the late 1970s, possibly aided by a misunderstanding that it was intended to protect the professional reputation of an intelligence community official. It was not publicly known until 1976 that she was a woman.

When all was revealed, several prominent science fiction writers suffered some embarrassment. Robert Silverberg had written an introduction to Warm Worlds and Otherwise, arguing on the basis of selections from stories in the collection that Tiptree could not possibly be a woman. Ursula K. Le Guin had prevented Tiptree from adding "his" signature to a petition by female science fiction authors, believing Tiptree to be a man. Both acted understandably under the circumstances, and both felt compelled to defend their positions later in print. And in an introduction to a story in one of the Dangerous Visions anthology series, Harlan Ellison stated that "[Kate] Wilhelm is the woman to beat this year, but Tiptree is the man."

Sadly, Sheldon took the life of her 86 year-old blind and bedridden invalid husband, and then took her own. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is given in her honor each year for a work of science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.

Child of the Shore...

Aisha Abdul-Rahman (1913 - 1998) was Egypt's leading female Islamic writer and scholar.

Her first published article, in a local paper in 1935, dealt with the social disadvantages of Egyptian peasants, and outraged her family. But her grandfather encouraged her to publish two other pieces in the Al-Nahda al-Nesa’eiyah ("Female Renaissance" magazine) under the pen-name Bint-Shat’e "child of the Shore" ­ her birthplace was the shore of Dammietta where the eastern branch of the Nile opens to the Mediterranean.

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Credits: Women's Calendar Team for digging up the stories.
 

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