A brand new collection of books reveals the actual names of ladies authors
The #ReclaimHerName book collection rejects the male pseudonyms of 25 authors and publishes well-known titles under the real names of the women who wrote them
The series is published by the Women's Fiction Award – in collaboration with Baileys, with VMLY & R advertising agency receiving creative credit – and only includes books previously published under male pseudonyms.
There are literary classics like Middlemarch – attributed to George Eliot but actually written by Mary Ann Evans – and A Phantom Lover, written by Violet Paget (previously published as Vernon Lee). There are other titles that many of us may be less familiar with, many of which are no longer in print. The series spans a whole range of genres including poetry, science fiction, and romance.
Illustrators have created the covers for each of the novels, which are available as free e-books (although Baileys donated a physical copy of each to the British Library and other libraries across the UK).
A website devoted to the collection has a pithy one-liner that makes it easy to gauge which book is a good fit for you, as well as some key facts about the authors themselves – for example, Ann Petry as the first African American writer to sell over a million copies .
In addition to being a beautifully designed collection of books, the #ReclaimHerName collection highlights some of the challenges women writers have faced – and arguably still face – in their attempts to publish books. Seems like a shame the collection isn't available in a physical version. However, VMLY & R states that e-books were chosen to make the books available to as many people as possible.
The entire series can be downloaded for free from the Baileys website. baileys.com
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