Author profiles

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y

Henrietta Müller

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Henrietta Müller was a prominent activist for women's rights in the late-nineteenth century, who used her talents in the service of public reform. Best known for her radical opposition to taxation without representation, she became...

Alice Munro

AM , a Canadian writer of the later twentieth and twenty-first centuries, is widely regarded as one of the leading modern practitioners of the short story form. One of her collections is alternatively titled a...
Alice Munro Photograph of a sketch of Alice Munro. She is depicted from the shoulders up, with short curly hair and a collared shirt.

Georgina Munro

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GM published five novels, some of the silver fork variety, in the 1840s and 1850s, as well as sixteen contributions to The People's Journal, including essays and short stories. Her magazine writing, including tales...

Iris Murdoch

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IM , active from the second world war till almost the end of the twentieth century, was best known as a philosophical novelist with a wild sense of comedy. Her twenty-six novels foreground philosophic issues...
Iris Murdoch Black-and-white photo of Iris Murdoch in May 1963. Looking intently, off-camera, she is wearing a black blazer with a striped shirt underneath and has short hair.

Dervla Murphy

DM , cosmopolitan Irishwoman, is primarily a travel writer, with more than twenty books to her credit. She excels at vivid rendering of human international contact (often made over drinks), at trenchant and well-informed...
Dervla Murphy Colour photo of Dervla Murphy smiling and holding a black and white cat that has its face turned away from the camera, October 1990.

Eunice Guthrie Murray

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EMG, Scottish suffragist, rousing public speaker, novelist, feminist pamphleteer and biographer, issued her first book during World War One and her last shortly after World War Two. She published one travel book, and late in...

Grisell Murray

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GM wrote memoirs in the mid eighteenth century about each of her remarkable parents. Parts of her writing first appeared in print after her death, in the appendix to a work of history by George Rose

Judith Sargent Murray

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JSM , writing around and after the American War of Independence, produced poetry, plays, periodical essays, and a sentimental novel published in instalments. A recent biographer puts her closer to the centre of debate about...
Judith Sargent Murray Photograph of a three-quarter-length painting of Judith Sargent Murray by John Singleton Copley. Her pale skin and white satin dress contrast strongly with her her black shawl and dark background. She is seated, looking directly at the viewer though her body is turned a little away. Her right knee is raised; her elbows rest on the arms of her chair, and her right hand holds a basket of flowers. Her dark hair is pulled back and ornamented with a ribbon.

Sarah Murray

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SM published in 1799 and later expanded on a colourful travel guide to Scotland, northern England and the Hebrides. If she is indeed the same person as Sarah Maese or Mease, she had already...

Constance Naden

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CN was a poet, atheist, scientific theorist, and philosopher. Her verse, published early in her short, late-nineteenth-century career, reflects her interests in the biological sciences, the question of evolution, issues of religious faith and doubt...

Sarojini Naidu

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Sarojini Naidu was an Indian poet and political activist who published in English in the first decades of the twentieth century.
The British Library catalogue spells her name Sarojini Nayadu .
While studying in England...
Sarojini Naidu Black and white photo of Sarojini Naidu, head and neck only. She looks quizzically at the camera, her face resting on one hand, with slightly raised eyebrows emphasizing the wrinkles on her forehead. Her dark grey hair is brushed back, and she wears dangly earrings.

Carolina Oliphant Lady Nairne

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COLN was a significant member of the Scottish ballad revival, writing or radically revising something like eighty songs in the final decade of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth. Their various forms notably include...
Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne Photograph of a painting of Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, by John Watson Gordon, c. 1818. She is shown from the waist up, wearing a black dress with a white collar, and yellow trim at the sleeves. Her dark curled hair is visible around her face; the rest is covered by a white cap with a sheer veil hanging behind. Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Elma Napier

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Before and after she settled in Dominica, expatriate writer EN published two volumes of autobiography, two novels, one volume of travel stories, and numerous short stories in Dominican and British journals. She also contributed articles...

E. Nesbit

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EN , writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was an immensely prolific poet, journalist, novelist, and occasionally a playwright, who is remembered today almost entirely for her enduringly popular story-books for children...

John Henry Newman

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JHN 's many writings on theology and education were an important component of his career as Victorian religious seeker, teacher, and man of letters.
John Henry Newman Portrait miniature of the young John Henry Newman in black and white. He sits facing the viewer with hands clasped in his lap, clean-shaven, wearing oval-shaped glasses, jacket, waistcoat, and a white bow tie.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Over a series of nine poetry volumes published in Ireland, beginning in 1972, ENC 's central theme has been the emergence of female subjectivity
Allen Randolph, Jody. “Making it new”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
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, No. 8, May 2000, pp. 24-5.
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and spirituality from variously-depicted hampering and confinement. Her vibrant...

Grace Nichols

GN is a poet of stature, an anthologist, and a prolific and successful writer for children: an important element in the reading experience of many British children of Caribbean descent. She has also published a...

Florence Nightingale

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FN 's fame began when she headed nurses in the Crimean war. After the war, she worked to reform health care and promoted sanitation at home and abroad. To this end she composed speeches, government...
Florence Nightingale Black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of the young Florence Nightingale. She is wearing a simple black dress with lace collar and lace cap, and looking directly into the camera.