Dame Rebecca West (December 21, 1892 – March 15, 1983) was a noted British novelist, journalist, and essayist who wrote across several genres.

Born Cicely Isabel Fairfield in London, England, her mother was a pianist; her father, a failed journalist and ne’er-do-well, abandoned his family when she was eight years old, after which they moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. There she was educated at George Watson’s Ladies College, though contrary to its name, was a secondary school.

At age fourteen, she survived tuberculosis, and had to end her education at age sixteen for lack of finances. Some time later she studied drama at a London academy. With her unhappy childhood behind her, at age twenty, she assumed the name Rebecca West after a strong-willed woman in Rosmersholm, a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. “Live, work, act,” says this Ibsen heroine. 

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