Christine de Pisan (1364-c.1430) grew up in Charles’s V’s court in Paris, where her father was a physician and astrologer. Unusually, for the time, she received an education, and began to write. Most scholars and authors were unmarried men, but the widow de Pisan managed to make a living from her writing; the first woman to do so in Europe. In her lifetime, de Pisan produced at least 30 books of essays and poetry, her most well-known is The Book of the City of Ladies (1405). In her works, she promoted equality of education for the sexes, objected to the ‘trivialisation of women’s domestic work’, and celebrated female virtues. Despite promulgating these proto-feminist ideas, she never demanded that society change or reform. De Pisan knew her limits.]]> ___]]> Books]]> Sappho (c.630-570 BC) was a talented poet, known for her technical skill in verse. She was much loved and honoured by her contemporaries, and because she wrote about female love and desire, she was ahead of her time. Sappho portrayed women in love rather than as objects desired by men. In the last two hundred years or so, the content of Sappho’s poetry has meant that she has become an embodiment of female homosexuality – think of the words ‘sapphic’ and ‘lesbian’. She may have been gay, straight, or bisexual. Whatever her sexual orientation, Sappho should be remembered for the ‘outstanding technical and aesthetic quality of her poetry’. Despite only 650 lines surviving of the 10,000 Sappho composed, her work has influenced poets from antiquity right through to modern times.]]> [Anacreon and Sappho]]]> Books]]> Aphra Behn (c.1640-1689), the English Restoration playwright, poet, and translator, who rose to fame from obscurity. There are, however, a few facts and firsts to Behn. One fact was she was a spy for Charles II. Indeed, during her lifetime she was known as ‘agent 160’, as well as Ann Behn, Mrs Bean, and Astrea, her pseudonym. She also has the distinction of being one of the first English women to earn a living by her writing, and The Fair Jilt: or, the Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda (1688) was the first English novel written by a female writer. Here is the beginning of this novella, and the last page of her better-known short novel, Oroonoko (1688).]]> [Aphra Behn]]]> Books]]> Auctor….femina fuit’ – ‘The author…was a woman’ – so says the preface to this reprint of Itinerarium Egeriae – ‘The Travels of Egeria’. The text is a detailed account of Egeria’s three-year journey from Western Europe, probably France or Spain, to the Middle East. It is the earliest written example of a Christian pilgrimage. Egeria wrote for a female audience, and described her stay in Jerusalem, from where she visited many Holy Places, like Mount Sinai. She also recorded detailed descriptions of religious practices in the Holy Land. It is uncertain whether Egeria was a nun, but she was certainly educated, and a pious Christian, with the means and strength to travel – a difficult task for anyone in the 4th century.]]> [Egeria] ]]> Books]]> Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) found fame. Charles Dickens was taken with her writing, and published in his periodical, Household Words, many of her works, including North and South. With a focus on social problems, Gaskell used the North (fictional industrial Milton) and South (a rural area) to help play out the conflict between workers, landed gentry, capitalist manufacturers, and employers. In 1897, an anthology celebrating women novelists included Gaskell, who was deemed ‘pre-eminent’, possessing a ‘genius which time, fashion or progress cannot dim or take from.’]]> [Elizabeth Gaskell]]]> Books]]> Teuta (reign 231-227BC), became Queen of the Illyrian tribe of the Ardiaei (modern day Albania) upon the death of her husband, Agron. Piracy was legal for the Illyrians, and Teuta encouraged and supported her navy’s piratical pursuits in the Mediterranean Sea. As Greek historian, Polybius (209-125BC) reported, Rome wanted the pirate Queen Teuta to cease and desist, and sent two ambassadors to implore her to stop. Unfortunately for them, she captured one and killed the other. What is notable about Polybius’s account of Teuta’s exploits is the disparaging language he used to describe her behaviour. He portrayed women in general as ‘carriers of disturbing irrationality’ and ‘easily overcome by emotion’ (Eckstein, 1995). Teuta was just a woman in charge, which was anathema to most men of the time.]]> [Polybius]]]> Books]]> Trota of Salerno, Italy, was an 11th century medical practitioner. Tolerated as a female in the medical world, Trota wrote a treatise focussed on women’s health, specifically for a female audience. Over time, the treatise was copied, translated, and added to, and the extant manuscripts have become known as the ‘Trotula texts’. In the preface of some variations, the translator encourages literate women to read the text to illiterate women, so the knowledge becomes widespread. This book contains an ‘English Trotula’ (Sloane Manuscript 2463), translated from Middle English, and like all Trotula, it covers all kinds of medical conditions specific to women. Here is one of the sixteen explanations, with illustration, on ‘unnatural childbirth’.]]> [Trotula]. Translated by Beryl Rowland]]> Books]]> A Shropshire Lad, appeared. Housman, an English classical scholar known for his demands for accuracy in all things, disliked William Hyde’s images. He said of them: ‘They were in colour, which always looks vulgar.’ Without doubt, he would have been pleased with Agnes Miller Parker’s (1895-1980) black and white wood engravings, which first appeared in an edition in 1940. The engravings are delicate, match the content exactly, and are superb examples of her artistic skill. Parker’s illustrations to this work have been frequently republished. This is a Folio Society edition of 2014.]]> A.E. Housman]]> Books]]> Alexandra David-Néel’s autobiographical book on Lhasa is ‘The personal story of the only white woman who succeeded in entering the forbidden city’. In August 1911, dissatisfied with married life, David-Néel (1868-1969) travelled to the East. Her adventures had her living in a cave in Sikkim, Varanasi (Benares, India), and finally at Lhasa, Tibet. She was the first European woman to enter the city. While travelling, David-Néel adopted Tibetan dress, and was happy to beg, like other pilgrims. On returning to ‘civilisation’, she tirelessly promoted her three passions: women’s causes, theosophy, and Orientalism. The photograph shows ‘Lamp of Wisdom’, her Buddhist name, sitting in front of her retreat, Dechen Ashram, at 16,000 feet.]]> Alexandra David-Néel]]> Books]]> Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823) wrote five novels. Her success was such that writers like John Keats and Sir Walter Scott heaped praise on her. To Keats she was ‘Mother Radcliffe’. Scott proclaimed her the first poetess of romantic fiction, going further, in 1824 to state: ‘Mrs Radcliffe, as an author, has the most decided claim to take her place among the favoured few, who have been distinguished as the founders of a class, or school.’ That class or school was the Gothic novel, of which she was a pioneer. The Mysteries of Udolpho, which carries Radcliffe’s narrative technique of ‘explained supernatural’ was her fourth and most popular novel. Published in 1794 in four volumes, the London firm of G.G. and J. Robinson paid her £500 for the manuscript. This is the first edition, volume one.]]> Ann Radcliffe]]> Books]]> Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), had two distinct periods of creative work: 1912-1925, and from 1936 until her death in 1966. Strict censorship, and the fact that her emotive writings did not sit well with the Russian State, meant that much of her work was not readily available until a general thawing in Russia, post Stalin. Akhmatova was a courageous woman, choosing to stay and live in her native Russia, rather than emigrate. She stands as one of the most significant modern Russian poets, and with her poetic sensibilities, and economic restraint, it is easy to see why Charles Brasch had this volume in his library. The English translator is Richard McKane.]]> Anna Akhmatova]]> Book covers]]> Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720) was encouraged by friends Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope to voice her writing in her own name. The first edition of Miscellany Poems was advertised as ‘Written by a Lady’. In later printings, like this scarce edition, Finch bucked the anonymity trend; her name was emblazoned on the title-page. Topics touched on were wide-ranging: marriage, fortune, depression, political events, and spiritual beliefs. Many of her poems are laced with feelings on how hard it was for a woman writer to gain respect in a man’s world. And, like many others before and after, she mused on the temporality of life. Finch is an important female poet of the Restoration era.]]> Anne, Countess of Winchilsea]]> Books]]> Barbara Brookes’s ground-breaking, Ockham Award-winning thematically arranged, A History of New Zealand Women, was published by Bridget Williams Books. Brookes’s work features lawyer Mai Chen and dancer Parris Goebel, among others, who in the 21st century, are making their mark in New Zealand and around the world. The Wellington-based firm, Bridget Williams Books, has to be commended for its commitment to publish such books.]]> Barbara Brookes]]> Book covers]]> Caesar and Cleopatra: A History.
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Bernard Shaw]]> Books]]>
Harriet Tubman’s first act of rebellion was to run away from her owner in 1849. Called the ‘Moses’ of her people, Tubman (c. 1820-1913) was the only woman, and the only black, who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, She led about 70 slaves, in a dozen or so raids, to their freedom in the north of America. Tubman went on to become a cook, nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army in the American Civil War (1861-65), and the only woman to lead a troop of some 300 men. After the end of the Civil War, and the emancipation of all slaves, Tubman continued her fight for racial justice. She also campaigned for women’s right to vote. In 2016, the Treasury of the United States of America announced that Tubman would feature on the $20 bill.]]> Catherine Clinton]]> Book covers]]> All the Year Round, Mary Anning (1799-1847) was a ‘self-taught geologist, the daughter of a Lyme carpenter’. Born on the Jurassic Coast of southern England, Anning followed in her father’s footsteps to become a fossil collector and dealer. In 1811, aged only 12, she found the first complete skeleton of an Ichthyosaur, and later, the first British example of a Pterodactyl. As a woman, Anning did not often receive the credit deserved for her scientific discoveries. There is no doubt that she was instrumental in determining ‘scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth’. In 2010, Anning was recognised by the Royal Society as one of the ten women ‘who have most influenced the history of science.’]]> Charles Dickens]]> Periodicals]]> Charlotte MacDonald’s ground-breaking The Book of New Zealand Women/Ko Kui Ma te Kaupapa, co-edited with Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams, was published in 1991 by Bridget Williams Books. This volume carries biographical details on a wide range of women. MacDonald’s work runs from Caroline Abraham to Adele Younghusband.]]> Charlotte MacDonald. Edited by Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams]]> Book covers]]> Ada Lovelace (1815-52), daughter of poet, Lord Byron, was home schooled by her mother, Anne Isabella, and a series of governesses. Ada was limited by societal expectations on women, and was not allowed to attend university, so she pursued her studies informally by writing to scholarly family friends. Ada married in 1835, and continued her study of mathematics ‘by correspondence’ with University College of London Professor Augustus De Morgan (1806-71) – she was his only female private pupil. She first met computer scientist, Charles Babbage (1791-1871) in 1833, and went on to collaborate with him on various projects. In 1843, Ada included a computation table in a published paper, and it is regarded as the first computer program. She suffered from ill health most of her life, and died young, aged 36.]]> Christopher Hollings, Ursula Martin and Adrian Rice]]> Book covers]]> Boudica became Queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe, after her husband died in 60 AD. Under the command of the Roman general, Suetonius (b. 10 AD), all Icenian lands were consequently confiscated. A woman in charge was a ‘Roman’s worst nightmare’, so Boudica was publicly flogged, and her daughters were raped. Humiliated, Boudica sought revenge by amassing an army, and sacking the Roman stronghold of Colchester. She then made her way to London, razing Roman towns along the way. In London, Boudica met with Suetonius and his army. The Roman ‘killing-machine’ went into action, and the Celts were annihilated. Here is Tacitus’s account (c.100 AD) of Boudica’s pre-battle speech. The Roman historian is probably putting words in her mouth.]]> Cornelius Tacitus]]> Books]]> Mary Read (1695-1721) and Irishwoman, Anne Bonny (1698-1782) were both dressed as boys as children. They continued doing so as adults, and not knowing each other, ended up on the same Caribbean pirate ship captained by Calico Jack Rackham. Read and Bonny’s presence as skilled sailors and fierce fighters ‘directly challenged customary maritime practice’. An account of the pair’s exploits appeared in Defoe’s A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724. The work was republished many times, in many languages, and it proved that women could rebel against, and experience liberty from, societal norms. Read and Bonny were convicted of piracy in 1720, but escaped the hangman’s noose as they were both pregnant.]]> Daniel Defoe (Edited by Manuel Schonhorn)]]> Books]]> Margaret Sanger (née Higgins, 1879-1966) was the sixth child of eleven children – her mother, Anne, was pregnant 18 times in 22 years. Not surprisingly, she died of ill-health aged 49, nursed by Margaret. Possibly inspired by this, Sanger left home at 15, trained to become a nurse, and began work in the slums of New York City. In the crowded tenements, Sanger was confronted by women’s ignorance of their sexual health – they tended to use abortion as contraception. Saddened and infuriated, she moved out of nursing, and became a social activist. So began her life-long crusade to educate all American women about family planning. Sanger was the mother of the birth control movement in America, and she was instrumental in the development of the Birth Control Pill in the early 1950s.]]> David M. Kennedy]]> Books]]> Dora Russell (née Black, 1894-1986) wed the much older mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in 1921 because she was pregnant. A progressive, Dora campaigned her whole life on a variety of platforms – birth control, sexual freedom and equality for women, gender equality in education, peace, and at the end of her life, against nuclear armament. She worked hard to come out from behind her husband’s shadow, and despite his support of women’s suffrage, he believed women were the less intelligent half of the species. In the preface of her feminist work, Hypatia, Dora predicted that the book would go the way of its namesake and be torn to pieces; her prediction came true. In the text of the book, she writes in support ‘for women’s sexual freedom and against marriage’.]]> Dora Russell]]> Books]]> Dorothy Richardson’s semi-autobiographical ‘Pilgrimage’ series was published between 1915 and 1967. Interim is the fifth instalment in which she attempts to create a character, Miriam, who embodies the female ‘quest for the essence of human experience’ (J.C. Powys). In literature, Richardson (1873-1957) is important because she was one of the first modern novelists to use a ‘stream of consciousness’ technique in her work. This narrative experiment predates that of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Richardson actually hated the term, calling it in 1949, ‘that lamentably meaningless metaphor’.]]> Dorothy M. Richardson]]> Book covers]]> Yvette Williams (1929–2019) was the first woman from New Zealand to win an Olympic gold medal (Helsinki, 1952), and to hold the world record in the women’s long jump. When she retired in 1954, she was ranked number one in world track-and-field history in the long jump, fifth in the pentathlon, 12th in the discus throw, and 19th in the shot put. In 1953, she was awarded an MBE; in 2011, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit; and in 2019, she was posthumously awarded a Damehood. This iconic image depicts Williams training for the long jump at St Clair Beach, Dunedin.]]> E.A. Phillips photographer]]> Photographs]]> Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) grew up poor in Maine. Her writing career launched proper when she entered her poem ‘Renascence’ (1912) in a competition. She did not win, but her reputation as an independently minded woman who wrote about female sexuality, and played with the ‘conventional gender roles in poetry’, began to form. Millay, a bisexual, insisted on being called Vincent, and she became ‘a spokesperson for women’s rights and social equality’. She married in 1923, the same year that she won the Pulitzer Prize, and her feminist husband took care of all the domestics of life so Millay could concentrate on her writing. Harriet Monroe, an editor of this Anthology, described her as the ‘greatest woman poet since Sappho’.]]> Edited by Harriet Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson]]> Books]]>