A Daughter 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," Virginia Woolf famously wrote in A Room of One's Own.  And some day I will. But in the meantime, I want to give honor to my literary foremother by naming my new poetry blog in her honor.

"All I ask, is the privilege for my masculine part, the poet in me…if I must not, because of my sex, have this freedom, I lay down my quill and you shall hear no more of me…"
Preface, The Lucky Chance, 1686

Behn was a vehement champion of women, the first woman to make her living writing for the competitive London stage. A prolific writer, she also wrote precursors to the novel, poems, and translations. She is one of my many literary heroes. I have many, and in my writing, I claim descent from many women writers--and some men, of course--but Behn holds a very special place in my heart. I got to know her very well writing my doctoral dissertation about her decades ago. A few years after that, I wrote a screenplay about her life, now lost to time. Some day I may try again.

Aphra Behn worked and wrote and suffered so that her spiritual daughters wouldn't have to. Because of her, no one questions that I write. Because of her, I can write publicly and not be spattered with sexual slanders and libels. And because of her, I proudly call myself a daughter of Behn.