Women are turning the page on sexism
BORIS STARLING says male authors are being written out of fiction (Mail). These men could always use a pseudonym — Bella Starling, perhaps, or Bianca Bird — like countless women have had to do to get their work published. The Bronte sisters submitted their early works under the masculine noms de plume of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell. In 1850, Charlotte wrote that they did this because ‘we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice’. In order to be taken seriously, Mary Ann Evans concealed her gender by using the pen name George Eliot and Karen Blixen was better known as the author Isak Dinesen. Some famous female writers have hidden behind ambiguous initials. Louisa May Alcott wrote gothic thrillers under the name A.M. Barnard because the subject matter was deemed ‘unladylike’, and JK rowling’s publisher believed boys would avoid a book written by a woman, even though her stories about a young wizard would appeal to them. Female authors may be dominating book publishing but, as Starling says, white, male writers have moved into writing for film and TV. No wonder — I’m sure they’re making a lot more money than the female writers earning on average £10,497 a year.
FIONA WALSH, London W2.
WHAT does it matter whether a novel is written by a man or woman? I simply want to read an enjoyable story well put together.
TIM MICKLEBURGH, Grimsby, Lincs.
LAURA INGALLS WILDER has been accused of stereotyping Native
Americans in her book The Little House On The Prarie. She was born in 1867 to a pioneer family and wrote about the people she met and the clothes they wore. She was not stereotyping anyone, but producing a record of her life and experiences.
SALLY BUTLER, Rustington, W. Sussex.
WHY would books need ‘trigger warnings’? reading is supposed to broaden the mind, not close it down. We don’t grow as people, form our own opinions or discover a moral compass by being afraid to venture beyond the confines of our own experience. Books can be good without being moral, well written without being fair and entertaining without being true. Educators exhibit astounding arrogance when they set themselves up as moral gatekeepers. young people will do just fine without unnecessary interference.
G. MATTHEWS, Lancaster.
I HOPE the money will be raised to save the Honresfield Library, a treasure trove of 19th-century literature, including manuscripts by Sir Walter Scott, robert Burns and Charlotte Bronte, which has been put up for sale for £15 million. But what is being done to save our modern literature from being deleted by the woke brigade? J. C. BYRNE, Harrow, Middlesex.