Selected Writings of the Ingenious Mrs. Aprhra Behn. Grove Press/Evergreen Book, 1950.
Vintage softcover. Normal shelfwear. Some scuffs and scratches to cover. Previous price blacked out on cover. No markings inside. Good condition.
Aphra Behn is considered the first English woman to make a living as as writer. Behn included themes of gender, sexuality, women’s sexual pleasure, and femininity in her work; all of which were considered radical concepts during her time (17th century). In ‘A Room of One’s Own’, Virginia Woolf wrote of Behn: “All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn… for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds… Behn proved that money could be made my writing at the sacrifice, perhaps of certain agreeable qualities; and so by degrees writing became not merely a sign of folly and a distracted mind but was of practical importance.”