Literary Ladies Guide’s Wish List

By | On June 1, 2017 | Updated March 9, 2023 | Comments (20)

The goal of Literary Ladies’ Guide is to be the most comprehensive archive on the subject of classic women authors (mainly in the English language, or who have been translated into English).

The authors listed must be deceased, since our mission is to focus on our literary foremothers. Fortunately, there are many more women writing today than there were even in the recent past, so to have entries on living writers would be overwhelming.

Sometimes we do veer a bit off the path of literary authors to include historic women journalists and various women of the past who engaged in creative fields categorized as other voices.

 

Writer’s guidelines

Biographies should follow the example format of these two biographies:

Please contact us first to make sure no one else has claimed the author you may be interested in writing about. Submissions should be in the form of a word doc, and we will edit and post on our end. If you have a site or blog, we’d of course be glad to link to it, and include your brief bio.

There’s no upward word limit, but posts should be at least 700 words.

We’re also looking for posts on feminism and feminist topics as they relate to women’s classic literature and the authors on this site.

Finally, we’re open to other contributions as they pertain to authors already on the site; see the slider at the top of The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life — posts should be more on the side of informative and/or entertaining, though we do welcome literary analyses that are more academic.

Opinion pieces and book reviews are welcome, too, as long as they pertain in some way to classic women authors.

Before you delve into the author wish list following, here’s a short list of topics we’d love to see on the site:

  • Great memoirs and autobiographies of classic women writers 
  • We are committed to in-depth coverage of classic Black and Latina authors, so any pertinent content is welcome
  • Influential one-book authors (Margaret Mitchell, Anna Sewell, Emily Brontë, etc.)
  • Literary friendships: Willa Cather & Sarah Orne Jewett; Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton
  • Authors who wrote classics before age 25 (Mary Shelley, Carson McCullers, Miles Franklin, Colette, François Sagan, etc.)
  • Under-appreciated literary heroines for girls (Mary of The Secret Garden; Harriet the Spy; Meg Murray of A Wrinkle in Time, Emily of New Moon; etc.)
  • Dorothy Parker’s Civil Rights activism and how she funded the NAACP
  • How Margaret Mitchell secretly funded the education of black medical students
  • Discussion guides for classic novels by women
  • Classic novels by women authors to read aloud with your children
  • Classic novels for middle grade readers

… and really, anything of interest to you that relates to classic women authors —pitch me, using this site’s contact form.

Atherton, Gertrude

        Bambara, Toni Cade

Berlin, Lucia

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

Brame, Mary Charlotte (Bertha M. Clay)

Breithaupt, Marguerite

Burrill, Mary P.

Cary, Ernestine Gilbreth (Cheaper by the Dozen)

Cavendish, Margaret

Chase, Mary

Childress, Alice

Colwin, Laurie

Compton-Burnett, Ivy

Cooper, Anna Julia

Cooper, J. California

Crafts, Hannah

Crothers, Rachel

Davenport, Marcia

Davis, Rebecca Harding

Ditlevsen, Tove

Delafield, E.M.

Delaney, Clarrisa Scott

Dickens, Monica

Edgeworth, Maria

Evans, Augusta Jane

Ferne, Fannie

Fisher, M.F.K.

Fitzgerald, Penelope

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins

Gale, Zona

Galvão, Patrícia Rehder (Pagu)

George, Jean Craighead

Gibbons, Stella (Cold Comfort Farm)

Glasgow, Ellen

Green, Anna Katharine

Guy, Rosa

Hanff, Helen (84, Charing Cross Road)

Haraldsdóttir, Ingibjörg

Haywood, Eliza

Head, Bessie

Holley, Marietta

Hopkins, Pauline (Of One Blood)

Howard, Elizabeth Jane

Howe, Julia Ward

Jakobsdóttir, Svava 

James, P.D.

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer

Johnston, Mary

Jordan, June

Kerr, Jean

King, Grace

Kollontai, Alexandra 

Konigsberg, E.L.

Laurence, Margaret

Luce, Claire Booth

Margolin, Anna

Miller, May

Morris, Jan

Mowatt, Anna Cora

Murry, Judith Sargent

Newsome, Effie Lee 

O’Brien, Kate

Perkins, Lucy Fitch

Peterkin, Julia Mood

Pizan, Christine de

Radcliffe, Ann

Ramé, Maria Louise (Ouida)

Richmond, Grace S.

Richards, Laura E.

Richardson, Dorothy

Richardson, Henry Handel (Ethel Florence Lindsay Richardson)

Rinehart, Mary Roberts

Rodoreda, Mercè 

Rowlandson, Mary

Rukeyser, Muriel

Russ, Joanna

Sachs, Nelly

Sayers, Dorothy

Schreiner, Olive

Sedgwick, Catharine Maria

Shepherd, Nan (Scottish poet)

Sidney, Margaret

Sigurðardóttir, Fríða Á. 

Sitwell, Edith

Smith, Lillian

Smith, Stevie

Southworth, E.D.E.N.

Spark, Muriel

Stoddard, Elizabeth Drew

Struther, Jan (Mrs. Miniver)

Sveinsdóttir, Þórhildur 

Terhune, Mary Virginia Hawes

Thompson, Flora (Lark Rise to Candleford)

Thompson, Kay (Eloise)

Undset, Sigrid

Ury, Else

Warner, Gertrude Chandler (Boxcar Children)

Warren, Mercy Otis

Weldy, Ann

Whipple, Dorothy

Wilson, Harriet

Wittig, Monique

Woolson, Constance Fenimore

Zangwill, Edith Ayrton

Categories: Literary Musings

20 Responses to “Literary Ladies Guide’s Wish List”

  1. Hello! I would LOVE to do a biographical sketch of Margaret Cavendish, and maybe a short piece on “The Blazing World.” I would also be delighted to write a piece on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s autobiography. Do you have anything on Margery Kempe yet? Also, I am a huge fan of Mary Shelley. I am sure you have pieces on her already, but I do have an idea I’d love to discuss over email. Feel free to reach out to me over email anytime.

    Reply

    • Hi Tami, you’re right, I do make it challenging for people to find me! Though there is a contact form on the navigation bar, I should make people work so hard. I added that link to the sentence about pitching me, so thanks for that nudge. I’ll reach out to you via your e-mail address, or you can e-mail me via the contact form.

      Reply

  3. I think the portuguese author Alice Sampaio would fit in pretty well in this website! Thank you for all the hard and beautiful work.

    Reply

    • Felipe, Alice Sampaio sounds fascinating … I wonder if her work has ever been translated, as I don’t see an English Wikipedia page for her. And thank you for your kind thoughts!

      Reply

  4. For women’s literary friendships, I highly recommend https://somethingrhymed.com/ which is dedicated to that topic. I have had a couple of postings there–Can we submit a piece that has been published [only] on another blog? Alternatively, I have a piece that has only appeared on my own blog about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, who for some reason evaded your list?! ‘How Could Gertrude Stein Write The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and What’s With Those Brownies?’ suchfriends.wordpress.com/the-american-ex-patriates-in-paris/how-could-gertrude-stein-write-the-autobiography-of-alice-b-toklas-and-whats-with-those-brownies/

    Reply

  5. I would love to write about Susan Sontag. I have written for BookRiot and several other publications – please let me know.

    Reply

  6. How about more classic mystery writers? I’m thinking Dorothy Sayers and Josephine Tey. Also a more recent mystery author, Barbara Seranella (1956–2007). I would be interested in writing entries about one or more of these authors. Thanks so much!

    Reply

    • Hello Dorothy — thank you for your offer! I’d be interested in Dorothy Sayers and/or Josephine Tey — If I had to choose one, it would be your namesake. I’m surprised she’s not on this wish list already. Let me know if you need any other guidelines other than what’s at the top of this page.

      Reply

  9. Would you consider having Gene Stratton Porter on the list (Girl of the Limberlost, Freckles etc.)

    Reply

    • Oh yes, how could I have forgotten; I even have one of her books. I will add her now. Might you be interested in writing the entry?

      Reply

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