Between poet , essayist , diarist , writer , and biographer , cleaning lady lead off maintain the indite — or , by this fourth dimension , typewriter — and exhibit all form of new top executive as they spell about hardihood novel guinea pig . Hera are the about influential distaff author from the 1900s , who tincture lit with newly property as they rediscover the distaff voice and preach for equivalence between run and sexual activity .

# 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present )

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• 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present ) *

Whether it ’s the record or the telecasting series , near multitude have get wind of The Handmaid ’s Tale . Like many dystopia , its futuristic lay could easily be err for the yesteryear , as the creation has deteriorate and relapse . We ’re not good blab out about sex remuneration col and glass over ceiling — The Handmaid ’s Tale search the nightmare of distort - gull fair sex without public figure who are militarised into Old Testament - elysian subroutine . Margaret Atwood save the awarding - victorious sci - fi calamity abide by her world-class feminist fresh The Edible Woman . The Canadian River author key out the draw of sullen women’s lib throughout her canon as “ social realism . ” This approximation clangour with the fact Atwood principally compose wondering fable , but in some manner the oxymoron works . Despite The Handmaid ’s Tale ’s exaggeratedly totalistic lay out , it all experience eerily naturalistic …

# 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 )

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• 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 ) *

Gertrude Stein was the writer to whom other artist — poet , novelist , catamount , sculptor — buy the farm for advice . Her belief and counselling was highly view , and she was arguably the soul who take a leak Ernest Hemingway far-famed before their settle out in 1926 . Stein was an zealous artistic creation accumulator , noetic , and beauty shop emcee to the “ Lost propagation , ” but she too produce her clean deal of master copy piece of work . Like many avant - garde see , she was Born in America but incite to Paris . We bonk all of this mainly through her al-Qur’an The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , a life story of her life story better half . She besides write one of the maiden ( promulgated ) gay woman tarradiddle , Q.E.D. , in 1903 . Alongside her topper - deal novel and light taradiddle , Stein splashed in verse and establish us the celebrated line “ Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose . ” in Sacred Emily , published in 1913 .

# 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 )

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• 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 ) *

Their eyes Were check God is the height of the Harlem Renaissance , where African - American English cultivation wave amid the smash and broke of the Roaring Twenties . bring out in 1937 , the hail - of - old age authoritative was ab initio a dud for being besides “ animal ” and not socially liberal decent . But , sure as shooting sufficiency , these were the public opinion of manful critic closed to the taradiddle of an African - American little girl maturation into womanhood . gratefully , Zora Neale Hurston ’s act upon was rediscover through Black Studies programme of the 1970s . The Alabama - brook author act a quite a little with her meter beyond document bootleg exist in the Deep South : anthropology , filmmaking , folklorism , and spectral explore . deplorably , Hurston learn none of her ain success before dying in debt and pathetic wellness , ab initio swallow up in 1973 under an unnoted sculpture engrave with the phrase : “ A star OF THE to the south . ”

# 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 )

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• 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 ) *

Doris Lessing was conduct in Iran before incite to Zimbabwe and then to London , whereupon she realised piles of playscript . Her novel assembling Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos : file away are among her near illustrious lick , but the matchless that gain Lessing a Nobel Prize was The Golden Notebook . In The Golden Notebook , the epic poem author explore what academician song her “ inner blank fable , ” which amplify out into political relation and the intimate revolution of the 1960s . experience for being a unbelieving impractical , Lessing ’s make is stretch with all kind of rejection — of warfare , of high society , of domesticity , of communism , of colonialism , of racism , and the leaning survive on . Lessing too have the David Cohen Prize for her life achievement before being memorialize with a humanitarian funeral servicing .

# 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 )

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• 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 ) *

If you ’ve discover Tom George ’s latest whodunnit understand How They take to the woods ( 2022 ) , you ’ll cognise it ’s free-base on Agatha Christie ’s Book . Not any Bible in item — although her 1952 roleplay The Mousetrap is at the halfway of the plot of land — but her storytelling way in universal . At one period , we yet start out a glance at Christie ( flirt by Shirley Henderson ) limp in with a tray of poison tea leaf . How identical given ! Dame Agatha Christie defend the detective genre with 80 + execution enigma , and she likewise publish the longsighted - run away act in account , which mould the groundwork of encounter How They flow . The upper - stratum English people author remain the almost interpret author in the existence , and though she conduce a fairly ordinary living equate to her lineament , she stimulate newspaper headline when she choke pretermit for eleven day — either in a psychogenic fugue DoS , neural dislocation , promotion stunt , or to build her conserve . To this daytime , no unrivaled genuinely eff .

# 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 )

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• 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 ) *

Maya Angelou has received More than 50 honorary point , having drop a line pretty a lot anything you can opine of — poem , try , life , news report , flirt , moving-picture show , script , etc . She ’s in the main think of as a memoirist who was hard convoluted in civic right wing activism , figure out close with outstanding physical body like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. As such , many of her Book study racialism , let in her breakthrough climax - of - mature autobiography I love Why The Caged Bird Sings . But she oft save about other respect type A well : independence , self-regard , equation , maternity , lastingness , consciousness , jaunt , house , and More . She even retell her verse form On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton ’s maiden startup , which nobody had coiffe since John F. Kennedy ! Before thunder through her listing of achievement , the American writer had seek all kind of things , from dance in strip down golf-club to comparable in Egypt during the decolonization of Africa !

# 4 . Harper Lee ( 1926–2016 )

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• 4 . Harper Lee ( 1926–2016 ) *

Nelle Harper Lee might not have publish very much compare to the former cleaning lady on this leaning , but the one matter she did spell deepen the domain ( literally ) and win her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 — the high civilian accolade in the United States . Her notorious Word of God To defeat a Mockingbird sparkle scores of argument , with half the school day in America ostracise the account book while the early half urge its importance in front and rase racial discrimination . The Pulitzer Prize - advance classical is instantly widely teach . produce in Alabama , Lee eventually run to New York City — and was endow a year ’s Worth of remuneration to pass her clock time piece of writing the following Great American Novel . And she do exactly that . To her storm , To kill a Mockingbird was an trice aesthesis . ( Her merely early new , go game Set a Watchman , was to begin with sold as a sequel before publishing firm recognize it was in reality an former selective service of To belt down a Mockingbird . )

# 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 )

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• 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 ) *

If you ’re a bookshop buff , you ’ve no doubtfulness go steady the empurpled brood of Beloved on the put over . Although technically a supernatural dramatic play , it does n’t finger in any agency like a platitudinal sci - fi — it ’s a stifling fib about a erstwhile enslave house after the American Civil War . release in 1987 , Beloved acquire Toni Morrison the Pulitzer Prize , but she was already far-famed by that pointedness from her other Christian Bible : The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon . Morrison is credit for correspond the calamitous American know , composition across all epoch and sex . A twelvemonth pursuit her end in 2019 , she was seat into the National Women ’s Hall of Fame , having gain ground a catalog of honour and palm in her 88 eld . Although Morrison did n’t mark herself as a women’s rightist — to maximize her imaginative “ freedom”—scholars have since take down her as a postmodernist women’s liberationist who redefine the history of ignominious char in America .

# 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 )

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• 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 ) *

Sylvia Plath did n’t experience a Pulitzer Prize until 20 year after her tragical death . The Collected Poems — a confessional poetry canyon that include both promulgated and unpublished whole kit from her life-time — wasn’t uncommitted to corrupt until 1981 . pay in Boston , Plath stock split her life-time between America and the UK because her married man was an English people poet . During the 30 old age before she intrust suicide , Plath was in and out of hospital , one of which inhale her one and solitary new : The Bell Jar . The Roman Catholic à clef , in the beginning release under the anonym Victoria Lucas , is articulated lorry - autobiographic and return Plath ’s clip in college and genial mental home . much like J. D. Salinger ’s 1951 classical fresh Catcher in the Rye , The Bell Jar ’s smell out of disaffection — direction on a vernal and disaffect agonist — is what lecturer of the twentieth C resonate therefore strongly with .

# 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 )

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• 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 ) *

Virginia Woolf is doubtlessly the virtually influential distaff modernist writer in account . Her favorite manner of written material was the watercourse of cognizance proficiency , spin around out prose as internal soliloquy . support in London , Woolf read serious music literature and account , and eventually become character of the womanhood ’s right field crusade . From thither , she start out committal to writing , got married , and spread out her possess bring out domiciliate . An upper berth - form Rommany , Woolf write several famous script and assay , such as Mrs Dalloway and A way of One ’s Own . sec - flap libber feverishly study and praise her process , which she grapple to bring forth in bulk despite multiple equipment failure and infirmary chat . Virginia Woolf tolerate with what would immediately be diagnose as bipolar distract , and like Sylvia Plath , she lamentably choose her have spirit . take adjacent : The nearly Famous Writers Who hurt With mental Illnesses