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

Pandita Ramabai

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PR was a tireless advocate for the importance of education (both secular and religious) for women, and Indian self-reliance. Fifty-five years after her death, A. B. Shah called her the greatest woman produced by modern...
Pandita Ramabai Black and white photograph of Pandita Ramabai, shown from the shoulders up, looking earnestly to the left of the viewer, wearing a white hijab. "Ramabai" is signed below.

Eleanor Rathbone

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Feminist politician ER is called by a recent biographer the most significant woman in British politics in the first half of the 20th century.
Johnson, Richard William. “Associated Prigs”. London Review of Books, 8 July 2004, pp. 19-21.
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She wrote books, pamphlets, and essays on the various social...
Eleanor Rathbone Sepia photograph of Eleanor Rathbone campaigning outdoors. She leans forward as she speaks, her hands on a table bearing a vase of white flowers, There are trees and a banner behind her. She is wearing, apparently, a loose-fitting white summer suit, and a black hat, elaborate but compact.

Hannah Mary Rathbone

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HMR was an early Victorian anthologist, poet, novelist, memoirist, and religious writer, who also contributed to periodicals.

Clara Reeve

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CR , late-eighteenth-century novelist, wrote both gothic and contemporary novels (the first being her best known), as well as poetry and a pioneer work of serious criticism about the novel form. At the end of...
Clara Reeve Oval portrait of Clara Reeve, drawn by A. H. Tourrier, etched by Dammam. She is seen from the waist up, arms folded, standing beside a plant in a tall pot. She is wearing a simple striped dress with darker cloth crossed over her chest, a printed shawl around her shoulders, and a white cap her head. Her name is written beneath.

Amber Reeves

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AR , who began publishing shortly before the First World War, produced three clear-eyed and unsentimental novels about the predicament of the modern woman (including the difficulty of reconciling her sexuality with the social world)...

Marion Reid

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MR published her only known work, a tract entitled A Plea for Woman, in 1843. She is credited as one of the founders of the feminist movement, although unfortunately little is known about her...

Mary Renault

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MR , who published her first book in 1939, is best known for her historical novels, and is also noted for her strong interest in same-sex love. In her present-day novels, a large proportion of...
Mary Renault Black-and-white close-up photo of Mary Renault, 1946. Her hair is very short and she is wearing a collared shirt. The background is dappled with blurred light.

Ruth Rendell

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RR established herself as a leading crime novelist of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To the intricacies of plot characteristic of the genre, she adds a capacity to scare her readers, and a sophisticated focus...
Ruth Rendell Colour photograph of Ruth Rendell, seated at a table with a microphone and a glass of water. She is wearing a fawn jacket, white shirt, and brown trousers. Her is short and blonde.

Frances Reynolds

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FR , active in the later eighteenth century, was the author of poems (one printed), a published treatise on aesthetics, essays diary entries, and a memoir of Samuel Johnson which reached print years after her...

Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda

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MHVR , is remembered for her leading role in the struggle for suffrage and equality, as a founder of the Six Point Group , and the woman who made possible the very influential Time and...
Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda. She is wearing a white open-neck shirt, dark jacket, fur-trimmed coat, and a large wide-brimmed hat.

Jean Rhys

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Jean Rhys wrote a number of novels and short stories focusing on her own geographical and emotional alienation, as well as an unfinished autobiography. Her fiction from between the two world ward was largely forgotten...
Jean Rhys Jean Rhys (left, in hat) with Mollie Stoner.

Adrienne Rich

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AR ranks as one of the most influential figures in the twentieth-century feminist movement, and as one of the most influential contemporary American poets (though her political activism impeded the usual workings of the canonisation...
Adrienne Rich Black and white head-shot of Adrienne Rich. She has jaw-length hair with short bangs, and she wears a collared shirt.

Dorothy Richardson

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DR was in her time, and remains, a singular novelist. Her fiction has never conformed to accepted categories, and still challenges literary critics. Her major work, the series of novels comprising Pilgrimage, is now...
Dorothy Richardson In 2015 the Marchmont Association unveiled a blue plaque commemorating Dorothy Richardson at 6 Woburn Walk in London, funded by the University of Ulster Transgender Archive.

Elizabeth Richardson

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Elizabeth Richardson, Lady Cramond (formerly Ashburnham), was a seventeenth-century devotional writer (of prayers and meditations, maxims, and a treatise on life and death, as well as letters) over a period of almost forty years. She...

Henry Handel Richardson

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In a publishing career that began in 1895 and first registered with the public in 1908, expatriate Australian HHR produced six novels (three of which make up an epic trilogy), a collection of short stories...
Henry Handel Richardson Black and white photograph of Henry Handel Richardson. She is seated, wearing a large fur coat over a white blouse, and her hair is jaw-length, dark, and wavy.

Samuel Richardson

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SR 's three epistolary novels, published between 1740 and 1753, exerted an influence on women's writing which was probably stronger than that of any other novelist, male or female, of the century. He also facilitated...
Samuel Richardson Stipple engraving of Samuel Richardson, used by Anna Letitia Barbauld in her edition of Richardson's correspondence. He is standing with his right hand tucked into his jacket and a book in his left hand; in the related painting by Joseph Highmore, Richardson holds a paper instead of a book.

Charlotte Riddell

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CR was a prolific professional novelist and story writer during the latter half of the nineteenth century. She published forty novels, plus tales (in journals, annuals, and her own collections), two travel books, and essays...
Charlotte Riddell "Historic Buildings of the London Borough of Haringey" green plaque at St Ann's Hospital, Tottenham, London, reading: "Charlotte Riddell 1832-1906 Gothic novelist lived at 'St John's Lodge' that once stood here 1863-1873."

Maria Riddell

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MR was a talented amateur poet, diarist, letter-writer, and writer for children during the Romantic period. She published in 1788 a travel book about the Caribbean which is remarkable for its scientific observation, a critical...
Maria Riddell Head-and-shoulders painting of Maria Riddell by Thomas Lawrence, c. 1806. She sits with one bare, braceleted arm raised on her chair, her chin resting on her hand, and her face in profile gazing into the distance. Her empire-style, low-necked gown has a reddish shawl thrown round it, and her dark hair is cut short.

Laura Riding

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LR , an American who spent crucial years of her astonishingly productive life in England and Europe, was an important modernist poet, critic, and theorist, who regarded her poetry as a tool in the search...

Anne Ridler

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AR was a twentieth-century poet and verse playwright whose work has been called metaphysical. She also edited and wrote introductions and commentary for literary works by others, produced translations of opera libretti, and left...