Anna Kavan

AK is primarily a novelist and short story writer of the first half of the twentieth century, who based her writing quite closely on her life. In her writing, as well as in her life, there is a schism between the early novels, written as Helen Ferguson, and the later ones, written as AK . When she took on the persona AK, based on one of her early characters, she wrote more boldly and brashly in content and style than she had done heretofore. AK's novels tend to revamp episodes from her unhappy childhood and from her excruciating first marriage.