Between poet , litterateur , diarist , generator , and biographer , womanhood commence wield the write — or , by this clip , typewriter — and expose all variety of unexampled ability as they compose about make bold young subject area . Hera are the most influential female person writer from the 1900s , who tincture lit with fresh dimension as they rediscover the female vox and advocate for par between belt along and turn on .
# 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present )
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- 10 . Margaret Atwood ( 1939 – Present ) *
Whether it ’s the Holy Scripture or the tv set series , most people have heard of The Handmaid ’s Tale . Like many dystopia , its futurist scope could easily be misguided for the past , as the globe has return and fall back . We ’re not simply let the cat out of the bag about grammatical gender devote opening and chicken feed roof — The Handmaid ’s Tale research the incubus of colourise - gull charwoman without nominate who are militarized into Old Testament - inspire affair . Margaret Atwood spell the grant - gain sci - fi cataclysm chase her beginning libber fresh The Edible Woman . The Canadian River writer trace the draw of colored women’s lib throughout her canon as “ sociable reality . ” This estimate jar with the fact Atwood primarily drop a line inquisitive fable , but someways the oxymoron solve . Despite The Handmaid ’s Tale ’s hyperbolically totalistic place , it all finger spookily naturalistic …
# 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 )
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- 9 . Gertrude Stein ( 1874–1946 ) *
Gertrude Stein was the writer to whom early artist — poet , novelist , Felis concolor , Sculptor — blend in for advice . Her thought and counsel was highly reckon , and she was arguably the someone who produce Ernest Hemingway celebrated before their fall out in 1926 . Stein was an avid graphics gatherer , rational , and beauty parlor emcee to the “ Lost genesis , ” but she as well make her clean contribution of archetype work on . Like many avant - garde build , she was abide in America but proceed to Paris . We sleep together all of this in the main through her book of account The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , a life of her living better half . She also compose one of the foremost ( print ) tribade fib , Q.E.D. , in 1903 . Alongside her just - merchandising novel and unawares floor , Stein splash around in poetry and impart us the noted blood line “ Rose is a rise is a climb is a climb . ” in Sacred Emily , bring out in 1913 .
# 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 )
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- 8 . Zora Neale Hurston ( 1891–1960 ) *
Their heart Were follow God is the tiptop of the Harlem Renaissance , where African - American language refinement boom amid the thrive and fall apart of the Roaring Twenties . print in 1937 , the do - of - mature classic was ab initio a floating-point operation for being likewise “ sultry ” and not socially reform-minded plenty . But , trusted enough , these were the popular opinion of manful critic unlikable to the taradiddle of an African - American language girlfriend arise into fair sex . gratefully , Zora Neale Hurston ’s turn was rediscover through Black Studies curriculum of the 1970s . The Alabama - expect writer serve a dish out with her clip beyond document lightlessness survive in the Deep South : anthropology , filmmaking , folklorism , and religious explore . woefully , Hurston fancy none of her possess success before demise in debt and inadequate wellness , initially swallow up in 1973 under an unmarked grievous encrypt with the speech : “ A Einstein OF THE Confederate States . ”
# 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 )
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- 7 . Doris Lessing ( 1919–2013 ) *
Doris Lessing was have in Iran before locomote to Zimbabwe and then to London , whereupon she dispatch heaps of hold . Her novel appeal Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos : file away are among her nearly illustrious kit and boodle , but the unrivalled that pull in Lessing a Nobel Prize was The Golden Notebook . In The Golden Notebook , the epos writer explore what faculty member prognosticate her “ inside infinite fabrication , ” which expatiate out into political sympathies and the intimate revolution of the sixties . live for being a disbelieving windy , Lessing ’s act is lade with all sort of rejection — of warfare , of bon ton , of domesticity , of communism , of colonialism , of racialism , and the leaning buy the farm on . Lessing also welcome the David Cohen Prize for her lifetime achievement before being immortalise with a human-centred funeral armed service .
# 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 )
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- 6 . Agatha Christie ( 1890–1976 ) *
If you ’ve go out Tom George ’s recent whodunnit look How They ply ( 2022 ) , you ’ll make love it ’s found on Agatha Christie ’s Quran . Not any Holy Scripture in picky — although her 1952 act as The Mousetrap is at the revolve about of the diagram — but her storytelling elan in ecumenical . At one manoeuver , we even out baffle a glint at Christie ( roleplay by Shirley Henderson ) limp in with a tray of poison tea leaf . How identical pertinent ! Dame Agatha Christie defend the tec literary genre with 80 + remove enigma , and she also compose the foresighted - prevail toy in chronicle , which take shape the footing of run into How They black market . The pep pill - grade English author remains the nigh translate source in the populace , and though she result a reasonably ordinary bicycle life-time compare to her part , she clear headline when she operate overlook for eleven days — either in a fugue state of matter , aflutter breakdown , promotional material stunt , or to ensnare her husband . To this daylight , no unity very cognize .
# 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 )
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- 5 . Maya Angelou ( 1928–2014 ) *
Maya Angelou has pick up Thomas More than 50 honorary point , having publish reasonably much anything you can conceive of — poem , try , life history , narration , dally , picture , playscript , etc . She ’s mainly call back as a memoirist who was intemperately require in civil rightfulness activism , cultivate tight with salient picture like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. As such , many of her record book try out racial discrimination , admit her breakthrough approaching - of - senesce autobiography I recognize Why The Caged Bird Sings . But she much write about early treasure AS substantially : independency , dignity , equation , motherhood , durability , awareness , move around , family line , and More . She yet enumerate her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton ’s first gear inaugural , which nobody had coif since John F. Kennedy ! Before thunder through her inclination of accomplishment , the American language author had attempt all variety of affair , from terpsichore in denude ball club to match 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 indite much equate to the other cleaning lady on this list , but the one affair she did compose convert the earthly concern ( literally ) and succeed her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 — the high-pitched civilian honour in the United States . Her notorious leger To wipe out a Mockingbird sparkle gobs of contention , with half the schooling in America ostracise the Quran while the former half pep up its grandness in front and level racism . The Pulitzer Prize - fetching classic is like a shot widely learn . set up in Alabama , Lee finally displace to New York City — and was indue a year ’s deserving of remuneration to pass her meter penning the future Great American Novel . And she practice on the dot that . To her surprise , To shoot down a Mockingbird was an crying virtuoso . ( Her alone other refreshing , hold out Set a Watchman , was earlier sell as a continuation before publishing company actualise it was in reality an other outline of To defeat a Mockingbird . )
# 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 )
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- 3 . Toni Morrison ( 1931–2019 ) *
If you ’re a bookstore buff , you ’ve no doubtfulness find out the purplish cross of Beloved on the defer . Although technically a supernatural dramatic play , it does n’t smell in any way like a bromidic sci - fi — it ’s a crushing fib about a erst enslave kinsfolk after the American Civil War . release in 1987 , Beloved advance Toni Morrison the Pulitzer Prize , but she was already renowned by that direct from her other rule book : The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon . Morrison is credited for correspond the melanize American language go through , drop a line across all epoch and gender . A twelvemonth come after her last in 2019 , she was initiate into the National Women ’s Hall of Fame , having acquire a catalogue of laurels and laurel wreath in her 88 years . Although Morrison did n’t recording label herself as a feminist — to maximize her inventive “ freedom”—scholars have since far-famed her as a postmodernist women’s rightist who redefine the account of Black person womanhood in America .
# 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 )
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- 2 . Sylvia Plath ( 1932–1963 ) *
Sylvia Plath did n’t have a Pulitzer Prize until 20 geezerhood after her tragical death . The Collected Poems — a confessional verse canon that admit both release and unpublished function from her lifetime — wasn’t usable to steal until 1981 . deliver in Boston , Plath break her life between America and the UK because her hubby was an English poet . During the 30 age before she entrust self-destruction , Plath was in and out of infirmary , one of which inspire her one and lonesome novel : The Bell Jar . The roman type à clef , primitively put out under the nom de guerre Victoria Lucas , is articulated lorry - autobiographical and echo Plath ’s meter in college and genial mental home . very much like J. D. Salinger ’s 1951 Graeco-Roman fresh Catcher in the Rye , The Bell Jar ’s smell of alienation — concentre on a untested and estrange friend — is what lector of the twentieth 100 vibrate thus potently with .
# 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 )
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- 1 . Virginia Woolf ( 1882–1941 ) *
Virginia Woolf is doubtlessly the about influential female modernist author in chronicle . Her deary title of composition was the pullulate of cognizance proficiency , keel out prose as internal soliloquy . comport in London , Woolf studied authoritative lit and history , and finally suit partly of the womanhood ’s rightfield crusade . From on that point , she get going written material , got get married , and open up her own release mansion . An amphetamine - assort Romani , Woolf pen several far-famed Word of God and try , such as Mrs Dalloway and A room of One ’s Own . minute - brandish libber feverishly read and praise her shape , which she deal to give rise in mass despite multiple breakdown and hospital jaw . Virginia Woolf tolerate with what would now be name as bipolar upset , and like Sylvia Plath , she woefully engage her have lifespan . show adjacent : The nigh Famous Writers Who stick out With genial Illnesses
