Presented below, and organized by alphabetical order, are forty-five women writers who had no children.
ACKERMANN, Louise-Victorine
Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813-1890) was a French writer known for her somber and philosophical poems, as well as her autobiographical work Thoughts of a Lonely Woman (1883)
ADAMS, Hannah
Hannah Adams (1755-1831) was an American author who wrote about comparative religion and early United States history.
AJAMI, Marie
Marie Ajami (1888-1965) was a Syrian writer and feminist who launched the first women’s periodical in the Middle East called al-Arous (The Bride) in 1910.
ALCOTT, Louisa May
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American writer best known for Little Women (1868), a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the lives of four sisters as they grow from children to women.
ASTELL, Mary
Mary Astell (1666-1731) was an English protofeminist writer and philosopher who advocated for the education of women.
AUSTEN, Jane
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist and the author of the literature classic Pride and Prejudice (1813).
AYIM, May
May Ayim (1960-1996) was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist.
BIJNS, Anna
Anna Bijns (1493-1575) was a Flemish teacher and poet who wrote in Dutch.
BLIXEN, Karen
Baroness Karen Blixen (1885-1962) was a Danish author best known for her memoir Out of Africa (1937), an account of the seventeen years she spent in Kenya, which was published under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.
BLY, Nellie
Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was an American investigative journalist known for going undercover in a mental institution to expose the brutality and neglect suffered by female patients.
BOWEN, Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was an Irish-British writer known for her novels, such as The Death of the Heart (1938) set in the interwar period in London.
CATHER, Willa
Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an American writer and Pulitzer Prize winner known for her novels about life on the Great Plains.
CUNARD, Nancy
Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) was a white British writer, heiress, and political activist whose literary legacy includes poems and the Negro (1934) anthology of African literature and art, which she edited.
DE ACOSTA, Mercedes
Mercedes de Acosta (1892-1968) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist known for her lesbian love affairs with Hollywood icons, such as Greta Garbo, and stage actresses, such as Eva Le Gallienne.
DE GOURNAY, Marie
Marie de Gournay (1565-1645) was a French writer whose work includes The Equality of Men and Women (1622) and The Ladies’ Grievance (1626).
DE LA PARRA, Teresa
Teresa de la Parra (1889-1936) was a Venezuelan writer whose novel Iphigenia: Diary of a young lady who wrote because she was bored (1924) was a reflection on the respectability and values of Venezuelan society.
DE LANNOY, Juliana
Juliana de Lannoy (1738-1782) was a playwright and poet from the Netherlands whose work often featured strong women, such as the folk heroine Kenau in her play about the siege of Haarlem.
DICKINSON, Emily
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet. Reclusive and relatively unpublished during her lifetime, she is now considered one of the most important figures in American poetry.
EATON, Edith Maude
Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914), also known as Sui Sin Far, was a British Chinese writer whose family emigrated to North America during her childhood. Her work, such as her collection of short stories Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912), centered on the Chinese American experience.
FERGUSSON, Elizabeth Graeme
Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (1737-1801) was an American poet and writer.
GOTTSCHED, Luise
Luise Gottsched (1713-1762) was a German playwright who is considered the mother of modern German comedy.
GRIMKÉ, Angelina Weld
Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1958) was an American journalist, teacher, and writer. Of mixed race ancestry, her work focused on racial issues, especially violence against people of color, such as in her play Rachel (1916).
HATUN, Mihri
Mihri Hatun (c. 1460-1506) was an Ottoman author of love poetry.
HILST, Hilda
Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright who is considered to be one of the most important Portuguese-language authors of the 20th century.
HURSTON, Zora Neale
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an African American author and anthropologist whose work focused on the racial struggles of the early 20th century in the American South. A prolific writer, her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937.
JEWSBURY, Geraldine
Geraldine Jewsbury (1812-1880) was an English writer known for popular novels such as Zoe: the History of Two Lives (1845) in which a young married woman and a Catholic priest fall in love.
LAGERLÖF, Selma
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a Swedish writer and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. She is best known for her novel Gösta Berling’s Saga (1891).
LAMB, Anne Richelieu
Anne Richelieu Lamb (1807-1878) was a Scottish writer who anonymously published her feminist work Can Women Regenerate Society? (1844).
LARSEN, Nella
Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was an African American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, whose novel Passing (1929) explores the questions of race, gender, and sexuality.
LEE, Harper
Harper Lee (1926-2016) was an American writer best known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), a social commentary on race and prejudice which won the Pulitzer Prize.
MANDELSTAM, Nadezhda
Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980) was a Russian Jewish writer and educator who wrote two memoirs about life under the repressive Stalinist regime: Hope Against Hope (1970) and Hope Abandoned (1974).
MARTINEAU, Harriet
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was an English translator and social theorist considered to be the first female sociologist.
MISTRAL, Gabriela
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945.
NOGAROLA, Isotta
Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466) was an Italian writer and one of the most important humanists of the Italian Renaissance.
ORZESZKOWA, Eliza
Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910) was a Polish novelist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905. Her novel Nad Niemnem (1888) is a love story set in the Polish community near the Neman river (which lies between modern-day Belarus and Lithuania).
PYM, Barbara
Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was an English novelist who published a series of social comedies, including Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958).
REY, Margret
Margret Rey (1906-1996) was a German-born American writer and illustrator known for the Curious George series of children’s books that she created with her husband.
SACHS, Nelly
Nelly Sachs (1891-1970) was a German-born Jewish writer whose poetry reflects the plight of Jewish people under the tyranny of the Nazis during World War II. She was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966.
SEWELL, Anna
Anna Sewell (1820-1878) was an English novelist known for her best-selling children’s novel Black Beauty (1877), her only published work.
SITWELL, Edith
Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) was a British poet and one of the most important voices of 20th-century English poetry. Her best-known poem “Still Falls the Rain” was written during the London Blitz of World War II.
SUCHON, Gabrielle
Gabrielle Suchon (1632-1703) was a French philosopher and writer who argued in defense of single life.
VAN SCHURMAN, Anna Maria
Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was a Dutch scholar who defended women’s right to education.
VON DROSTE-HÜLSHOFF, Annette
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848) was a German poet and novelist, author of Die Judenbuche (1842), a murder mystery and moral study inspired by a true story. It centers around the murder of a Jewish man near a beech tree.
WATKINS, Maurine Dallas
Maurine Dallas Watkins (c.1896-1969) was an American journalist, playwright, and screenwriter best known for her stage play, Chicago (1926), which was adapted into a Broadway musical in the 1970s.
WHARTON, Edith
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American writer whose novels portrayed the upper-class society of the Gilded Age, such as in The Age of Innocence (1920) for which she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1921.
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