Literary Women

Books about women who have shaped our literary landscape.
Updated September 19, 2022
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Prairie fires : the American dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Fraser, Caroline
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the...
The Bronts︠
Barker, Juliet R. V.
Paper Book
A definitive history of this fascinating literary family written by a Bronte scholar and former curator and librarian at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Barker's hefty opus integrates newly-discovered manuscripts and letters from every member of the family as well as fine photographs and reproductions...
Anne Sexton : a biography
Middlebrook, Diane Wood
Paper Book
Anne Sexton began writing poetry at the age of twenty-nine to keep from killing herself. She held on to language for dear life and somehow -- in spite of alcoholism and the mental illness that ultimately led her to suicide -- managed to create a body of work that won a Pulitzer Prize and that still...
Romantic outlaws : the extraordinary lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley
Gordon, Charlotte.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SEATTLE TIMES This groundbreaking dual biography brings to life a pioneering English feminist and the daughter she never knew. Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley have each been the...
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
Ruth Franklin
Paper Book
Instantly heralded for its "masterful" and "thrilling" portrayal (Boston Globe), Shirley Jackson reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the literary genius behind such classics as "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House. In this "remarkable act of reclamation" (Neil...
Margaret Fuller : a new American life
Marshall, Megan
Paper Book
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography "Thoroughly absorbing, lively . . . Fuller, so misunderstood in life, richly deserves the nuanced, compassionate portrait Marshall paints." -- Boston Globe Pulitzer Prize winner Megan Marshall recounts the trailblazing life of Margaret...
The Soul of a Woman
Isabel Allende
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes "a bold exploration of womanhood, feminism, parenting, aging, love and more" (Associated Press). "The Soul of a Woman is Isabel Allende's most liberating book yet."--Elle
A secret sisterhood : the literary friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bront,︠ George Eliot & Virginia Woolf
Midorikawa, Emily
Paper Book
Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend; think Byron and Shelley, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But the world's best-loved female authors are usually mythologized as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses. Coauthors and real-life friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney prove...
The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym
Paula Byrne
Paper Book
'Captures both Barbara and her writing so miraculously' JILLY COOPER Picked as a Book to Look Forward to in 2021 by the Guardian, The Times and the Observer A Radio 4 Book of the Week, April 2021 Barbara Pym became beloved as one of the wittiest novelists of...

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