Today, June 7, marks the birth of three women who wrote in the field of the fantastic and are primarily known for their short stories, at least among fans of the weird tale. This post will be a little different than the usual birthday post in that I won’t be reviewing any of their stories. I spent the afternoon trying to video myself doing labs for this week’s classes.
First is Amelia B. Edwards. (1831-1892) Best known for “The Phantom Coach”, Mrs. Edwards wrote enough stories of the supernatural to fill a collection.
Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) wrote a number of what would be called mainstream or literary novels today, but she was also a note author of ghost stories. You would expect that, with her being Irish. Robert Aickman thought highly of her work.
Kit Reed‘s (1932-2017) work was primarily science fiction, with much of it published in F&SF. Although it’s been enough years that details have faded from memory, I read her collection Other Stories and…The Attack of the Giant Baby either in high school or as an undergrad and enjoyed it quite a bit.
I apologize for not presenting an example of each lady’s work, but I did want to post something today if for no other reason than to counter the nonsense that women didn’t write science fiction and fantasy before the 21st Century. All three of these women were highly regarded when they were actively writing. Check their work out if you get a chance.
