A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf - Paperback

by Emily Midorikawa (Author), Emma Claire Sweeney (Author)

Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend, but what about the friendships of women writers? A Secret Sisterhood, drawing on letters and diaries, some never published before, brings to light a wealth of surprising female collaborations: the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, amateur playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor, who shaped the work of Charlotte Brontë; the transatlantic friendship of the seemingly aloof George Eliot and the ebullient Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who, in fact, enjoyed a complex friendship. They were sometimes scandalous and volatile, sometimes supportive and inspiring, but always--until now--tantalizingly consigned to the shadows.

Author Biography

Writers and friends EMILY MIDORIKAWA and EMMA CLAIRE SWEENEY co-run the website somethingrhymed.com. Emma is author of the novel Owl Song at Dawn, Emily is a winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, and they both teach at New York University in London.