The Hidden Hands of Literature: Women in the Literary Shadows

Last year, a male relative mentioned to me that he was reading a new novel, called Salt to the Sea. I told him I enjoyed that novel quite a bit and recommended its partner, Between Shades of Gray. When he finished that one, he texted me a picture of the book and said, “This guy is my new favorite author.” I replied, “Yeah! But Ruta Sepetys is a woman!” After a bit, he simply wrote back, “Dumb name.” And he didn’t read anything else by her.

This is a terribly upsetting but oft-occurring incident of gender bias. This man had read these books with a male author in his mind. Simply by changing the gender of that author, he lost respect for her.

Many of history’s most famous literary works and ideas have been shaped by women writers who worked behind the scenes. Some of these behind-the-scenes jobs include ghostwriting for famous authors, serving as uncredited editors, or having their work overshadowed by male counterparts. While some of these women writers eventually received recognition, many remain stuck in obscurity. This post will shine a light on the female literary figures who shaped literature from the shadows.

I’ve read many books on these topics, so when applicable I’ve shared a book recommendation to learn more!

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The Brontë Sisters

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë originally published under male pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell because women writers weren’t taken seriously. They went by their male pen names in letters to their publishers and didn’t reveal their literary success to even their closest friends.

Charlotte describes the moment she revealed her true self to her publisher in a letter to a friend. She said, “I then put his [i.e. Smith’s] own letter into his hand directed to “Currer Bell.” He looked at it—then at me—again—yet again—I laughed at his queer perplexity—A recognition took place…”

While it’s a shame the Brontë sisters had to hide behind male pen names, it did offer them some safety. Initial reviews of Jane Eyre were largely negative and some critics found it “unchristian and immoral.” One reviewer criticized Jane, saying, “the heroine herself is a specimen of the bold daring young ladies who delight in overstepping conventional rules” (“The Last New Novel [Unsigned review of Jane Eyre]” 1847).

Recommended reading:

• The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects by Deborah Lutz
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

Zelda Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is often considered a singular male genius’s work, but Zelda’s diaries and letters heavily influenced his writing. Some passages of Gatsby even seem to be direct lifts from her personal writing.

Zelda’s life in Scott’s shadow contributed to many of her notorious mental health issues. She was institutionalized for the final years of her life and modern scholars believe she suffered from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

She wrote her semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, while institutionalized. Some scholars believe that Scott tried to suppress the publication of her novel, while others say the opposite. They claim he pushed for it, even helping in its composition, hoping its publication would help relieve the Fitzgeralds’ serious financial debts.

Recommended reading:

• Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
• Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford
• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Unacknowledged Women from the Harlem Renaissance

While many women writers of the Harlem Renaissance achieved recognition, some like Jessie Redmon Fauset and Georgia Douglas Johnson, though influential, faced challenges in gaining widespread recognition and had their work overlooked or underappreciated during their lifetimes. 

• Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–1961) Though Fauset was the literary editor of The Crisis (the NAACP magazine led by W.E.B. Du Bois), her own writing was often overshadowed by the male writers she promoted, such as Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. However, her own novels, such as Plum Bun and There Is Confusion, were not widely celebrated at the time. Fauset’s novels, which explored the inner lives and struggles of Black middle-class women, were often dismissed as “too genteel” or unimportant compared to the themes of racial violence and protest literature that male writers emphasized.
• Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880–1966) As a woman writing about gender, love, and racial identity, her work was often dismissed as “too soft” compared to male writers’ focus on political themes. Many of her plays addressing lynching and racial injustice (Blue Blood and Safe) went unpublished during her lifetime, as publishers shied away from Black women’s voices on these issues. Furthermore, some of her anti-lynching plays were never performed or printed because they were deemed too controversial.
• Angelina Weld Grimké (1880–1958) As a queer Black female author and journalist, her work was often excluded from mainstream Harlem Renaissance discussions. Her play Rachel (1916) was one of the first anti-lynching dramas by a Black writer and one of the few plays centered on a Black woman’s perspective. Much of her work was unpublished in her lifetime, and she did not receive the same level of support as her male contemporaries.

Sylvia Plath

When poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes married in 1956, Hughes was already a rising literary star in England, while Plath, an American poet, was still trying to establish herself. Though Plath was a disciplined writer, she often played the role of Hughes’s supporter, promoting his career and prioritizing his work over her own. She even used the name “Mrs. Ted Hughes” in some of her works.

Six years later, Plath discovered Hughes was having an affair, which destabilized her emotionally and led to their separation. This period of personal turmoil, however, fueled her most powerful work, including the poems in Ariel. The emotional devastation contributed to her final mental health decline, culminating in her suicide in 1963.

After Plath’s death, Ted Hughes became the executor of her literary estate, giving him full control over how her work was published, edited, and interpreted. Hughes rearranged and omitted poems from Ariel before its 1965 publication. Furthermore, Hughes burned one of Plath’s journals and lost another, which contained entries from the last months of her life. He claimed he destroyed them to protect their children, but critics argue this was an act of erasure.

Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar was published under a pseudonym in 1963 and was initially dismissed as a minor work. Hughes and Plath’s mother, Aurelia, prevented its publication in the U.S. until 1971, further delaying its recognition.

Recommended Reading

• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Ariel: The Restored Edition by Sylvia Plath
• The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath and Karen V. Kukil
• The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath
• Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark

The Women Writers Behind Famous Male Authors

• Dorothy Wordsworth, William Wordsworth’s sister, played a crucial but largely uncredited role in shaping her brother William Wordsworth’s poetry. Her detailed journals captured vivid descriptions of nature and daily life, many of which William later incorporated into his poems. Despite her influence, Dorothy’s contributions were overshadowed, as her writing was seen as mere observations rather than literary art. While William gained fame as a pioneering Romantic poet, Dorothy’s work remained in the background, only recognized posthumously for its lyrical beauty and impact on English literature.
• Sophia Tolstoy, Leo’s wife, played a vital yet overlooked role in Leo Tolstoy’s literary career. She served as his editor, copyist, and financial manager. She meticulously transcribed War and Peace multiple times by hand, edited his manuscripts, and provided critical feedback, yet she received no formal recognition for her efforts. Beyond her literary contributions, she managed the household finances, ensuring Tolstoy could focus on his writing without distraction. Only in recent years have scholars begun to acknowledge her role in shaping one of Russia’s greatest literary figures.
• Vera Nabokov played a similar role in husband Vladimir Nabokov’s life, even selecting his best drafts. Without her, many of his novels—including Lolita—might never have been completed or received the acclaim they did. Despite her critical role in shaping his literary success, Vera remained in the background, rarely acknowledged as the intellectual force she was.

Recommended Reading:

• The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth and Pamela Woof
• Dorothy Wordsworth’s Illustrated Lakeland Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth
• Home at Grasmere: Extracts from the Journal of Dorothy Wordsworth by Dorothy Wordsworth and Colette Clark
• The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy by Cathy Porter
• Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy by Leah Bendavid-Val
• Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Shiff
• Letters to Vera by Vladimir Nabokov

Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree Jr.)

Sheldon began writing science fiction novels in 1967. She initially published under the name Raccoona Sheldon, but found little success until she changed to the male pen name James Tiptree Jr. She explained, “A male name seemed like good camouflage. I had the feeling that a man would slip by less observed. I’ve had too many experiences in my life of being the first woman in some damned occupation.”

Readers assumed “Tiptree” was a man due to the “masculine” themes of her work. One critic scoffed at theories that the author could be a woman, saying, “It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing…[He’s] a man of 50 or 55, I guess, possibly unmarried, fond of outdoor life, restless in his everyday existence…a man who has seen much of the world and understands it well.” Once her identity was revealed, Sheldon struggled writing in her strong “masculine” voice behind a female name. In 1987, she shot her husband and turned her gun on herself after struggling with depression for years.

Recommended reading:

• Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home by James Tiptree Jr.
• Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
• James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips

I hope you find at least one of these stories interesting enough to explore further. Check out some of the books I’ve recommended and learn more about the women writers behind some of your favorite stories!