It appears to be a yearly ritual: a list of great American writers is published, and the counting begins. How many women are on the list? Invariably, there is disappointment, and a public discussion, and then the controversy dies down until the next list appears.

The makers of such lists would do well to consult Elaine Showalter, a literary critic and former Princeton professor. Showalter is the author of A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx.

A Jury of Her Peers is a well-researched and very accessible look at more than 250 American women authors, from 1650 to the modern day. Showalter includes the famous and the lesser-known: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Parker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Willa Cather, Grace Paley, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult to name a few. Arranged by decade, Showalter's book examines how each woman's work fits into her time, how the work influenced history, and how history influenced the work.

Showalter examines the obstacles that women writers often encountered, and where they had success. She speculates that perhaps British women writers made earlier progress towards being taken seriously as writers because the British tended to have servants. This allowed women the time to write. American women were usually faced with housework and chores, and did not have a chance to further their writing skills. Even in the South, where slavery was prominent, well-to-do women studied the domestic and social arts, and did not have the freedom or the free time to write. And Showalter points out that many of the women who had successful writing careers started to write because they needed to earn a living, due to the death of a spouse or men going off to war.

This Character Approved book is the first of its kind, and presents a wonderful compendium for anyone who is interested in American writing and women's history, especially as we celebrate Women's History Month.

[image: Elaine Showalter, credit Claudio Vazquez]