Dale Spender laid the groundwork for this list in her classic Mothers of the Novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen (1986) (names on Spender's original list are indicated with an asterisk [*]).
The Novelists
- Penelope Aubin*
- Jane Barker*
- Aphra Behn
- Anna Maria Bennett* (whom Spender called Agnes Maria Bennett)
- Elizabeth Bonhôte*
- Elizabeth Boyd*
- Sophie Briscoe*
- Eliza Bromley*
- Frances Brooke*
- Indiana Brooks*
- Mary Brunton*
- Mrs Burke*
- Frances Burney*
- Sarah Harriet Burney*
- Lady Charlotte Bury*
- Mary Butt, Mrs Sherwood*
- Elizabeth Byron (Strutt)
- Mrs. Carver
- Lady Mary Champion de Crespigny*
- Charlotte Charke*
- Mary Charlton*
- Harriet Cheney
- Harriet Chilcot*
- Emily Clark*
- Jane Collier*
- Mary Collyer*
- Maria Susanna Cooper
- Helen Craik
- Charlotte Dacre
- Anne Seymour Damer*
- Mary Davys*
- Anne Dawe*
- Anne Eden*
- Maria Edgeworth*
- Elisa Fenwick*
- Susan Ferrier
- Sarah Fielding*
- E. M. Foster*
- Hannah Foster
- Anne Fuller*
- Phoebe Gibbes*
- Mrs A. Gomershall*
- Sarah Green*
- Elizabeth Griffith*
- Susannah Minifie Gunning*
- Elizabeth Hamilton*
- Lady Mary Hamilton*
- Mary Ann Hanway*
- Jane Harvey
- Laetitia Matilda Hawkins*
- Mary Hays*
- Eliza Haywood
- Mary Hearne*
- Elizabeth Helme*
- Elizabeth Hervey*
- Mrs Howell*
- Anne Hughes*
- M. (Harley) Hugill*
- Maria Hunter*
- Rachel Hunter
- Elizabeth Inchbald*
- Frances Jacson
- Mrs. Johnson
- Susanna Keir*
- Isabella Kelly*
- Anne Kerr*
- Sophia King*
- Ellis Cornelia Knight*
- Caroline Lamb
- Sarah Lansdell*
- Mary Latter*
- Harriet Lee*
- Sophia Lee*
- Charlotte Lennox*
- Alethea Lewis
- Charlotte MacCarthy*
- Anna Maria Mackenzie*
- Delarivier Manley
- Jean Marishall* (whom Spender called Jean Marshall)
- Mrs Martin
- Eliza Matthews*
- Anna Meades*
- Mary Meeke*
- Margaret Minifie*
- Hannah More*
- Lady Morgan* (Sydney Owenson)
- Elizabeth Norman*
- Amelia Opie*
- Charlotte Palmer*
- Mary Elizabeth Parker*
- Catherine Parry*
- Eliza Phelp Parsons*
- Susanna Pearson*
- M. Peddle*
- Laetitia Pilkington
- Mary Pilkington*
- Mary Pix*
- Arabella Plantin*
- Anne Plumptre
- Elizabeth Plunkett*
- Jane Porter
- Elizabeth Purbeck
- Jane Purbeck
- Ann Radcliffe*
- Mary Anne Radcliffe*
- Clara Reeve*
- Mary Darby Robinson*
- Regina Maria Dalton Roche*
- Elizabeth Singer Rowe*
- Susanna Rowson*
- Elizabeth Ryves* (or Elizabeth Reeves)
- Charlotte Sanders* (or Charlotte Saunders)
- Sarah Robinson Scott*
- Catherine Selden
- Frances Sheridan*
- Ann Emelinda Skinn*
- Eleanor Sleath*
- Catherine Smith
- Charlotte Smith*
- Elizabeth Isabella Spence
- Sarah Emma Spencer*
- Augusta Amelia Stuart
- Miss Taylor*
- Elizabeth Thomas
- Jane Timbury*
- Elizabeth Tomlins*
- Jane Warton*
- Jane West*
- Helena Wells*
- Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson
- Helen Maria Williams*
- Mary Wollstonecraft*
- Mrs A. Woodfin*
- Ann Yearsley*
- Mary Julia Young*
See also
- List of biographical dictionaries of women writers
- List of early-modern women playwrights (UK)
- List of early-modern women poets (UK)
- List of women writers
- Women's writing in English
Resources
- MacCarthy, B.G. The Female Pen: Women Writers and Novelists, 1621-1818. New York: NYUP, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-5519-4; ISBN 0-8147-5518-6.
- Spender, Dale. Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. Pandora Press, 1986. ISBN-10 0863580815; ISBN-13 9780863580819.
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