A brief history of female authors with male pen names

Female authors have a tough time being themselves

Historically, they've had to hide their identities, adopting male names in order to combat sexism and prejudice. Using a male pen name often helped a female author get her foot in the door, past male publishers who didn't think the literary world was a place for women

See also: 50 coming-of-age books for when growing up is too hard

For example, when a 20-year-old Charlotte Brontë sent a selection of her poetry to England’s poet laureate Robert Southey, she received the following response: "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life." Thankfully, the future author of Jane Eyre disregarded his advice. Along with her sisters Emily and Anne, she assumed a male pen name under which she released her work. Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell and Emily became Ellis Bell Read more...

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