By Marie Lebert | On December 28, 2025 | Comments (0)
Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an English writer whose main work was the six-volume compendium Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries, featuring the biographies of 300 notable women (in 294 entries) from ancient figures to nearly contemporaries.
Originally published in England in 1803, it was published in the United States four years later. Hays was also a poet and novelist.
Mary Hays was born into a family of Protestant dissidents who rejected the practices of the Church of England, the established church at the time. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 26, 2025 | Updated November 11, 2025 | Comments (0)
Eliza Ashurst Bardonneau (1813–1850), born Elizabeth Ann Ashurst, belonged to a family of English radical activists. She teamed up with her friend Matilda Mary Hays (1820–1897), an English journalist writing about women’s rights, to offer the first translations into English of some works by French novelist George Sand.
They both liked the subversive tone of Sand’s novels and the political and social issues tackled in her works.
Eliza Ashurst belonged to a family of English radical activists who supported causes such as abolitionism, women’s suffrage and Italian unification (Risorgimento). Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 25, 2025 | Updated October 25, 2025 | Comments (0)
George Eliot was the pen name used by the English writer Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880). She used her real name as a translator, editor and critic, and used the pen name George Eliot for her fiction.
By her own account her first literary works were translations of theological and philosophical works, which influenced her work as a fiction writer. She also led a life defying the conventions of her time.
Mary Ann Evans received a good education and was a voracious reader. Her father was the estate manager of the Arbury Hall Estate (in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England) and she had access to the large library of the estate, including many Greek classics. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 23, 2025 | Updated October 2, 2025 | Comments (0)
Gertrude Bell (1868 – 1926) was an English archeologist, writer, and translator. She traveled extensively in the Middle East and advocated for Arab nationalism before settling permanently in Baghdad and contributing to the nation building of the Kingdom of Iraq.
She published several books about her travels and her archeological excavations. She corresponded extensively with many friends, colleagues and policy makers during her whole life. Read More→
By Marie Lebert | On June 22, 2025 | Updated September 22, 2025 | Comments (0)
Mary Louise Booth (1831–1889), was an American writer and a prominent translator from French to English. At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, she translated the French anti-slavery advocate Agénor de Gasparin’s seminal book Uprising of a Great People (1861) for it to be quickly distributed in the United States.
She became the first editor of the American fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar in 1867.
Born in Millville (now Yaphank) in the State of New York, Booth was of French descent on her mother’s side. After moving to New York City at the age of eighteen, she wrote tales and sketches for newspapers and magazines and also worked as a translator. She wrote History of the City of New York (1859), which became a bestseller. Read More→
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