Great Women Rulers of Literature

12" Wooden Ruler made in U.S.A. of American-grown basswood.

The contribution made by women to World Literature is huge, important and remarkable. It also started very early, going back over 4000 years. The first writer on our list is the poet Sappho (c. 600 BC), who lived on the Greek island of Lesbos.

We have included writers of poetry and prose, from Mary Shelley (1797-1851), who dreamt up the monster created by Doctor Frankenstein when she was only 18 to Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), who gave us the charming and unforgettable stories of Squirrel Nutkin, Mr. McGregor and Peter Rabbit, the success of which helped her to preserve much of England’s Lake District.

While in our list we give a lot of attention to English-language writers, there are also authors on this ruler who wrote in Greek, Japanese, Latin, French, Italian, Russian and Dutch. The dates listed on this ruler are the years of each individual’s birth and death, if known.

Four of the writers on our list are African-American: Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784), Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), Maya Angelou (1928-2014) and Toni Morrison (1931-2019). 

The “head” image is of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), who wrote nearly 1,800 poems, of which fewer than a dozen were published during her lifetime. Our illustration is based on a daguerreotype taken in 1846 or 1847 by an unknown photographer at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts.

If you like this ruler, you might also be interested in Rulers of Literature, Great Women Rulers of Art, Great Women Rulers of Science or Great Women Rulers of Music or Great Women Rulers of Tech.