Lady Mary Wroth was the first English woman to write an extended work of prose fiction, "Urania", which echoed her love affair with her nobleman cousin, despite their marriages to others. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC
- Lady Mary Wroth was the first English woman to write an extended work of prose fiction, "Urania", which echoed her love affair with her nobleman cousin, despite their marriages to others.
- Vita Sackville-West's book on Aphra Behn, England's first female professional playwright. Behn was also a spy, and Sackville-West was also Virginia Woolf's lover.
- Georgette de Montenay's "Livre d’armoiries...", 1619, is one of the 75 exhibits by 50 early women writers in the Folger's "Shakespeare's Sisters" exhibit now through May 20.
- "Shakespeare’s Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500-1700" is a fascinating exhibit at DC's Folger Shakespeare Library now through 5/20.
- Writers Jane Smiley and Rita Dove are among the contributors who will read from their works in "Shakespeare's Sisters" chapbook on February 16 at the Folger's Old Reading Room.
- Virginia Woolf, who wrote "A Room of One's Own", in which she imagined Shakespeare having a sister who was thwarted as a writer. Woolf is the organizing device of "Shakespeare's Sisters" exhibit.
- More >
![Lady Mary Wroth, "The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania", London, 1621](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_full_width_scaled/hash/16/98/169816a2e163e00a72eacc0ed80b8832.jpg "Lady Mary Wroth was the first English woman to write an extended work of prose fiction, "Urania", which echoed her love affair with her nobleman cousin, despite their marriages to others.")
