Women’s writes
BLUME also penned 1975’s Forever which told the story of two teenagers who decide to have sex responsibly. She was inspired to write this when her 13-year-old daughter said she wanted to read a book where the characters have sex but do not die afterwards as a “punishment”. Blume has also been the target of censorship and outrage.
Her novels faced frequent challenges and bans through the 80s and 90s – and as recently as March, a Florida school district removed Forever from shelves. Now 85, her books have sold more than 90million copies.
ANGELOU’S 1969 autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings revealed how she had been left mute for five years after being sexually abused as a child. She published seven autobiographies as well as poetry books. Born in 1928, her jobs included ed sex worker, dancer, journalist and the first black woman to conduct a cable car in San Francisco. Angelou, above right, spoke six languages, directed or produced several films, was a chef who released cookbooks and appeared at US president Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
FRANKENSTEIN, about a scientist who creates a monster, is considered the first work of science fiction. The idea came to Mary, right, after a nightmare on holiday with her husband – Percy By sshe Shelley. The pair had an affair when Mary was just 16 and he was married, and she is said to have lost her virginity to him on her mother’s grave. They elopped to France, eventually marrying, but Percy was killed in a boating accident in Italy. Mary, who died in 1851 aged 53, kept his heart in a purse. Frankenstein has often appeared on screen, including Kenneth Branagh’s version, right.
THE American wrote 1868’s Little Women about four sisters – a and based tomboy Jo on herself Her family were poor and Alcott also penned thrillers to earn money. She worked as a nurse in the American Civil War, contracting typhoid fever which left her plagued with health problems until her death, aged 55 in 1888. Alcott, who never married, was the first woman to register to vote in her home town of Concord, Massachusetts. Little Woman was most recently made into a 2019 film, starring Emma Watson, above.
■ A NEW film of Judy Blume’s classic young adult novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret hits cinemas this week. The movie stars Abby Ryder Fortson as the 11-year-old Margaret and Rachel McAdams as her mother. ■ Blume saw her novel published in 1970 and the author became a trailblazer for her frank discussion of topics which were taboo for young readers – such as teen sex, birth control, periods and death.
■ Here NADINE LINGE looks at Blume and other ground breaking female authors.
THE British writer asked d why women couldn’t have independence. Born in 1882, she had flings with women, including novelist Vita Sackville-West, despite being married.
Her 1928 book Orlando describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English history. y. Orlando has been played by Tilda Swinton, , bottom right.
Woolf, top right, also battled mental illness, thought to be bipolar disorder, and died by suicide in 1941 aged 59.
BORN in 1862, this American writer, left, was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1921 for her novel The Age ge Of Innocence.
She travelled extensively and was living in Paris when World War One broke out. Instead of fleeing, she opened a workroom for women where she fed and paid them for their sewing. She travelled to support refugees and the injured. She died in 1937 aged 75.