In this space, we pay homage to the women writers throughout the centuries, who have inspired throughout their lives and works, have shaped literature and given form to new visions of the world.
Each month of the year is dedicated to a woman writer born on the first day of that month, symbolically elected as a guide and inspiration for the following weeks.
Through a brief biography and reading suggestions chosen to delve deeper into the work of the writer of the month, the themes dear to her or the historical and cultural context in which she lived, we invite you to discover the female literary heritage and each month to listen to a different but equally powerful voice.
The month of December is dedicated to the Australian writer Helen de Guerry Simpson
1st December 1897 – 14th October 1940
On December 1st, Helen de Guerry Simpson, a successful Australian writer whose works still hold a prominent place in 20th-century literature, was born in Sydney.
After studying French, music, and drama in Oxford, England, she founded the Oxford Women’s Dramatic Society and began publishing her first plays.
Boomerang, published in 1932, was her first major success. Her literary output was eclectic: she wrote two historical biographies, The Spanish Marriage (1933) and Henry VIII (1934); essays such as What Communism Does to Women (1933) and The Happy Housewife (1934); and short stories such as My Daughter’s Daughter (1929) and No Jewel is Like Rosalind (1938).
Simpson co-wrote the detective stories Enter Sir John (1929), Printer’s Devil (1930), and Re-enter Sir John (1932), with the collaboration of Clemence Dane; the first novel was adapted into Hitchcock’s film Murder! (1930).
In Australia, Simpson lectured and conducted research for the novel Under Capricorn, which Hitchcock directed in 1949.
In 1940, she died of cancer on October 14. Simpson’s final novel, Maid No More, was published in 1940.
Recommended readings:
– Under Capricorn by Helen de Guerry Simpson
– A Man of His Time by Helen de Guerry Simpson
– Enter Sir John by Helen de Guerry Simpson and Clemence Dane