During the very time period in which Vichy France attempted to build a colonial empire on the backs of Algerians in French Algeria and Vietnamese in French Indochina (now Vietnam), they were systematically persecuting Jewish people who lived in France. While using youth corps and integrationalist policies in Indochina to foster obedient and Franco-patriotic colonial subjects, they enacted laws in France that began with mandating registration of all Jewish people in France to their eventual roundup and deportation in 1942 to Auschwitz.
The contradictions of this can be seen in French Indochinese policies that exalted nationality through a soulful connection rather than division by race, class, or soil. At the same time, Vichy France removed Jews from various positions in French Indochina and restricted attendance of Jews at public schools established for French colonial children in French Indochina.
In 1940, about 350,000 Jews lived in metropolitan France. By the end of 1942, 76,000 were deported and died in concentration and extermination camps. Only a tiny fraction, 2, 566, of those deported survived. Even given this, the survival rate of Jews in France was 75%, more than in any other European country, due in part to the efforts of non-Jews who risked their lives to protect Jews.
Towards the end of the war, occupied France, relying upon age old state secrecy rules aimed at protecting the French government and the state from embarrassing revelations, destroyed nearly all of the massive archive of Jewish arrests and deportations. There were attempts early on to save the historical record of the Holocaust. For example Drancy internment camp records were carefully preserved and turned over to the new National Office for Veterans and Victims of War; however, the bureau held them in secret, refusing to release copies to the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation.
One of the most heart-wrenching things that I came across was this online interactive map that shows the origin of every child deported from France between July 1942 and August 1944. The map was created by French historian Jean-Luc Pinol, and uses data collected by former Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld.
The following is my attempt to compile a comprehensive book list for memoirs and biographies that detail the Holocaust in France:
- The Holocaust, The French And The Jews by Susan Zuccotti – Zuccotti uses memoirs, government documents, and personal interviews with survivors to chronicle some of the stories of ambiguity and betrayal, as well as those of courageous protection during Nazi occupation of Germany.
- Vichy France and the Jews: with a new Foreword by Stanley Hoffmann by Michael Marrus, Robert Paxton – “Marrus and Paxton provide a graphic and often heartrending account of official cruelty, administrative callousness, public prejudices, and popular indifference; the section on Vichy’s concentration camps is particularly eloquent. Their exhaustive research and the sobriety of their prose make this indictment far more powerful than previous works on the subject.” (New York Times Book Review)
- Jews in France During World War II by Renée Poznanski – Renée Poznanski presents an extraordinary panorama of Jewish daily life in France during World War II. The book provides a detailed and nuanced account of Jews in both occupied and Vichy France as well as of Jewish life in French camps.
- French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial by Serge Klarsfeld – Drawing together archival evidence pried with difficulty from the French government, family testimony and photographs solicited by advertisements in Jewish publications in Europe, Israel, and the United States, and the Nazi’s own lists of deportees–which were discovered, fading and crumbling, this book represents the culmination of many volunteers’ painstaking efforts to give testimony to the short lives of these Jewish children.
- Operation Yellow Star / Black Thursday by Maurice Rajsfus – In this two-part book, French investigative journalist, Maurice Rajsfus, who survived the 1942 “Black Thursday” roundup at Vel d’Hiv of 13,000 Jews, recollects events that point to Vichy/police collaboration and culpability in the Holocaust, and the influence of right-wing media.
- The Vél d’Hiv Raid: The French Police at the Service of the Gestapo by Maurice Rajsfus – Beginning in the early morning hours of July 16, 1942, and lasting for two days, the French police went beyond Nazi ordinances and imprisoned more than 13,000 Jews at a Paris sporting arena, the Vélodrome d’Hiver. For most of the Jews, this detention without water, food, or sleep was the first horrific step toward death in the concentration camps. This is the companion piece to Rajsfus’s Operation Yellow Star / Black Thursday.
- Mémorial de la Shoah is the Holocaust museum in Paris, France.
- The Holocaust in France is a website hosted by the Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center which provides an excellent historical breakdown of the persecution of Jewish people in France.
- The Holocaust Survivor’s Program otherwise known as the “The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs” is an excellent program that is guided by the conviction that each survivor of the Holocaust has a remarkable story to tell, and that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity. The program preserves survivors’ stories and makes them widely available to a broad audience. Their website has listings of memoirs and references to the age appropriateness of each book. Their website also features “Collection” which utilizes interactive storytelling and innovative design to provide a truly unique journey through Holocaust history.
- The Holocaust in France – A Resource Guide – This is an online resource guide that has a a selection of books and on-line resources presenting the fate of the Jews in France during the Second World War. They enable people to trace specific victims and/or survivors of the Holocaust.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Eluding the Nazis in Occupied France by Sarah Lew Miller and Joyce B. Lazarus – an unusual memoir about the childhood and young adulthood of Sarah Lew Miller, a young Jewish girl living in Paris at the time of the Nazi occupation.
- You’ve Got to Tell Them: A French Girl’s Experience of Auschwitz and After by Ida Grinspan, Bertrand Poirot-Delpech – On a quiet winter night in 1944, as part of their support of the Third Reich’s pogrom of European Jews, French authorities arrested Ida Grinspan, a young Jewish girl hiding in a neighbor’s home in Nazi-occupied France. She spends the next year and a half at Auschwitz.
- The Journal of Hélène Berr by Hélène Berr – On April 7, 1942, Hélène Berr, a 21-year-old Jewish student of English literature at the Sorbonne, took up her pen and started to keep a journal, writing with verve and style about her everyday life in Paris — about her studies, her friends, her growing affection for the “boy with the grey eyes,” about the sun in the dewdrops, and about the effect of the growing restrictions imposed by France’s Nazi occupiers.
- But You Did Not Come Back: A Memoir by Marceline Loridan-Ivens – This is a profoundly moving and poetic memoir about the author who was arrested by the Vichy government’s militia, along with her father. At the internment camp of Drancy, France, her father told her that he would not come back, preparing her for the worst. On their arrival at the camps, they were separated—her father sent to Auschwitz, she to the neighboring camp of Birkenau.
- Hunting the Truth: Memoirs of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld by Beate and Serge Klarsfeld – In this dual autobiography, the Klarsfelds tell the dramatic story of fifty years devoted to bringing Nazis to justice. They have tracked them down in places as far-flung as South America and the Middle East. They both have a reputation as world-famous Nazi hunters and as meticulous documenters of the fate of the innocent French Jewish children who were killed in the death camps.
- Rue Ordener, Rue Labat by Sarah Kofman – this memoir opens with the horrifying moment in July 1942 when the author’s father, the rabbi of a small synagogue, was dragged by police from the family home on Rue Ordener in Paris, then transported to Auschwitz. Not long after her father’s disappearance, Kofman and her mother took refuge in the apartment of a Christian woman on Rue Labat, where they remained until the Liberation.
- Playing For Time by Fania Fenelon – In 1943, Fania Fenelon was a Paris cabaret singer, a secret member of the Resistance, and a Jew. Captured by the Nazis, she was sent to Auschwitz where she became one of the legendary orchestra girls who used music to survive the Holocaust.
- Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn – Marthe was a beautiful young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis. When France fell under Nazi rule, her sister was sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family fled. Marthe joined the French Army and used her perfect German accent and blond hair to pose as a young German nurse to spy on the Nazis.
- Confronting Memories of Nazi-Occupied France – this photojournalism article chronicles the author’s journey to review French released police documents from the Vichy era with his grandmother.
- A Stone for Benjamin by Fiona Gold Kroll – Since childhood, author Fiona Gold Kroll has been drawn to a photograph of her great-uncle, Benjamin Albaum, a Jewish man who disappeared from Paris at the beginning of World War II. Determined to uncover the truth about Benjamin’s life and death and France’s betrayal of its Jewish population, Fiona pieces together her great-uncle’s life, elevating Benjamin’s legacy from a number tattooed on his arm at Auschwitz to a more complete memory of the vibrant man he was.
- None of Us Will Return & Days and Memory & Auschwitz and After by Charlotte Delbo – Though Delbo is not Jewish, her memoirs, which detail her time in concentration camps as a member of the French resistance, provide insight to the plight of Jewish women in the camp. Delbo was arrested in 1942 with her husband, Georges Dudach, who was executed almost immediately. Delbo was interned first in a French prison, then in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Ravensbrück.
- Dangerous Measures by Joseph Schwarzberg – Joseph Schwarzberg is sixteen years old and living a dangerous double life—as a German Jew carrying false identity papers in France, he must constantly lie, constantly evade capture. Under threat since fleeing with his mother and sister from Germany after the violent attacks during Kristallnacht in 1938, Joseph and his family resolve to get as far from the Nazis as possible. They flee to France where their safety is short-lived when the Germans occupy the country in June 1940.
- Where Courage Lives by Muguette Szapjzer-Myers – In 1942, in the village of Champlost, France, ten-year-old Muguette Szpajzer finds solace from the war. As her mother risks living in a Paris swarming with Nazis, the mayor of Champlost rips up letters of denunciation and the priest gives Muguette a new Catholic name, Marie. Sheltered by the kindness of the townspeople, Muguette delights in her new surroundings, filling her days by learning to ride a bike, recite catechism and adapt to rural life. Where Courage Lives provides rich insight into life in a small village against the backdrop of the war, paying tribute to both Muguette’s indomitable mother and the courage of the people of Champlost.
- One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child’s Journey Through France by Fred Gross – Told in words and photographs, this memoir chronicles the journey of Fred Gross and his family beginning in Antwerp and ending with his freedom in America. Most of the Grosses’ flight takes place in France where they were assisted by the brave men and women of other faiths, reverently referred to as The Righteous Among the Nations, who risked their lives standing up to their collaborationist government.
- A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot – A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents’ mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences as Holocaust survivors.
- Asylum: A Survivor’s Flight from Nazi-Occupied Vienna Through Wartime France by Moriz Scheyer – Moriz Scheyer was a prominent journalist in Vienna until he was forced to flee after the Anschluss in 1938. While hidden by the Resistance in a French convent after his release from a concentration camp, he secretly wrote down the details of his struggle to stay alive.
- Of No Interest to the Nation: A Jewish Family in France, 1925 – 1945: A Memoir by Gilbert Michlin – This memoir traces the efforts of Michlin’s parents as they emigrated to France prior to the war where they sought to totally integrate into French life, retaining very little, if anything, of their Jewish identity or religion. Despite this, Michlin’s mother was denied citizenship because she did not fit into the various categories of acceptance; she was of ‘no interest to the nation.’ Michlin’s skill in engineering enabled him to belong to a special privileged cadre of prisoners who worked for the Siemens plant.
- Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944: Collaboration, Resistance, and Daily Life in Occupied Paris by Jean Guéhenno – Guéhenno was a well-known political and cultural critic, left-wing but not communist, and uncompromisingly anti-fascist. Unlike most French writers during the Occupation, he refused to pen a word for a publishing industry under Nazi control. He expressed his intellectual, moral, and emotional resistance in this diary: his shame at the Vichy government’s collaboration with Nazi Germany, his contempt for its falsely patriotic reactionary ideology, his outrage at its anti-Semitism and its vilification of the Republic it had abolished, his horror at its increasingly savage repression and his disgust with his fellow intellectuals who kept on blithely writing about art and culture as if the Occupation did not exist.
Tales of Extreme Tragedy & Biographies
- Your Name Is Renée: Ruth Kapp Hartz’s Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France by Stacy Cretzmeyer – In Nazi-occupied France in 1941, four-year-old Ruth Kapp learns that it is dangerous to use her own name. “Remember,” her older cousin Jeannette warns her, “your name is Renee and you are French!” A deeply personal book, this true story recounts the chilling experiences of a young Jewish girl who was helped by French people who risked their lives to protect her.
- The Children of Izieu: A Human Tragedy by Serge Klarsfeld – In 1944 the Nazis from Lyon sent three vehicles to the tiny French village to exterminate the children of the orphanage known as La Maison d’Izieu. Here 44 Jewish children in age from 3 to 18 were hidden away from the Nazi terror that surrounded them. All of the children were deported to Auschwitz and murdered immediately upon arrival. Of the supervisors there was one sole survivor, twenty-seven year old Lea Feldblum. [See also The Children of Izieu]
- Hell’s Traces: One Murder, Two Families, Thirty-Five Holocaust Memorials by Victor Ripp – Hell’s Traces tells the story of the two families’ divergent paths. In July 1942, the French police in Paris, acting for the German military government, arrested Victor Ripp’s three-year-old cousin, Alexandre. Two months later, the boy was killed in Auschwitz. In addition to Alexandre, ten members of Ripp’s family on his father’s side died in the Holocaust. His mother’s side of the family, numbering thirty people, was in Berlin and survived.
- Holocaust Odysseys: The Jews of Saint-Martin-Vésubie and Their Flight through France and Italy by Susan Zuccotti – The terrifying tale of nine families as they fled hostile Vichy France to the Alpine village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie and on to Italy, where German soldiers rather than hoped-for Allied troops awaited. Those who crossed over to Italy were either deported to Auschwitz or forced to scatter in desperate flight.
- Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano (2014 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) – Dora Bruder is the story of a teen aged Jewish girl in Paris during the German occupation, who ran away from a Catholic school where she might have been safe. Only a few records and photographs of Dora and her parents survive, all with no reason for her escape, her return to her parents, her subsequent return to the school and her second escape. Shortly afterwards Dora and then her parents were arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
- Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France by Carmen Callil – Bad Faith tells the story of one of history’s most despicable villains and con men—Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, Nazi collaborator and “Commissioner for Jewish Affairs” in France’s Vichy government. Darquier set about to eliminate Jews in France with brutal efficiency, delivering 75,000 men, women, and children to the Nazis and confiscating Jewish property, which he used for his own gain.
- Hunting Down the Jews: Vichy, the Nazis and Mafia Collaborators in Provence, 1942-1944 by Isaac Levendel and Bernard Weisz – Hunting Down the Jews is about the French Mafia of Marseille who were paid by the Nazis to round up the Jews and deliver them to Nazi SS Commander Rolf Mühler. Evidently, the French police in this zone were too lax in arresting Jews and so the Germans turned to French criminals to do the job. The impetus for the book is the arrest of a Polish Jewish woman, Sarah Lewendel, who had taken refuge in the south and slashed her wrists as she was being arrested. They missed her little son who grew up to investigate the crime and to write this book.
- A Girl Called Renee by Ruth Uzrad – This is the unbelievable autobiographical story of Ruth Uzrad, a Jewish teenager whose father was arrested from their Berlin apartment by the Gestapo. Ruth is sent into hiding to Belgium but when Belgium falls under the Nazis, Ruth goes into the French Jewish underground movement where she takes on a false identity and a new name, Renee, and participates in special operations aimed at rescuing Jews in danger.
- The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940-44 by Jacques Semelin -Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France’s Jews, both French and foreign. 75% of France’s Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. This book sheds light on how this came about.
- Heroines of Vichy France: Rescuing French Jews during the Holocaust by Paul R. Bartrop and Samantha J. Lakin – the largely unknown story behind the rescue activities of several remarkable young Jewish women in Vichy France.
- Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn and Wendy Holden – Memoir by Jewish woman who sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis before using her perfect German accent and blond hair to pose as a young German nurse who would slip behind enemy lines to retrieve inside information about Nazi troop movements.
- The Marcel Network: How One French Couple Saved 527 Children from the Holocaust by Fred Coleman – Syrian immigrant Moussa Abadi was only 33, and his future wife, Odette Rosenstock, 28, was a young Jewish couple that was trapped in Nazi-occupied France. Risking their own lives and relying on false papers, the Abadis hid Jewish children in Catholic schools and convents and with Protestant families with their clandestine organization—the Marcel Network. By the end of the war, 527 children owed their survival to the Abadis.
- A Good Place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives in World War II by Peter Grose – The story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of 3,500 Jews under the noses of the Germans and the soldiers of Vichy France. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed.
- The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust by Lisa Moses Leff – Jewish historian Zosa Szajkowski stole tens of thousands of archival documents related to French Jewish history from public archives and collections in France and moved them, illicitly, to New York.
- Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead (Author) – Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche, one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of this tiny mountain village and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, OSS and SOE agents, and Jews. Many of those they protected were orphaned children and babies whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.
- Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There by Philip P. Hallie – in a small Protestant town in southern France called Le Chambon, villagers and their clergy organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death.
- Hidden on the Mountain: Stories of Children Sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon by Karen Gray Ruelle & Deborah Durland Desaix – another book about Le Chambon.
- Rescue as Resistance: How Jewish Organization Fought the Holocaust in France by Lucien Lazare, Jeffrey Green – A survivor of the Holocaust and a distinguished scholar of Jewish history, Lucien Lazare presents a compelling defense of the Jewish resistance movement in France during World War II, arguing that rescue was a genuine and significant way of fighting back.
- Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust – When World War II began in September 1939, there were approximately 1.6 million Jewish children living in the territories that the German armies or their allies would occupy. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, more than 1 million and perhaps as many as 1.5 million Jewish children were dead. Thousands of Jewish children survived this brutal carnage, however, many because they were hidden. This amazing exhibit captures their stories.
- Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue: How a French Priest Together with Jewish Friends Saved Thousands during the Holocaust by Susan Zuccott – Zuccotti narrates the life and work of Père Marie-Benoît, a courageous French Capuchin priest who risked everything to hide Jews in France and Italy during the Holocaust. Acting independently without Vatican support but with help from some priests, nuns, and local citizens, he and his friends persisted in their clandestine work until the Allies liberated Rome.
- Diary of a Witness, 1940-1943 by Raymond-Raoul Lambert – Lambert, a leader of the Union of French Jews, reveals in this book his efforts to save the Jews in France, particularly the children.
- The Plateau by Maggie Paxson – During World War II, French villagers offered safe harbor to countless strangers – mostly children – as they fled for their lives. Anthropologist Maggie Paxson poses the question: What are the traits that make a group choose selflessness?
- My Maman Grete by Michel Stermann – This is the true story of Rémy and Grète, a couple of educators at orphanages in which, after WW II, children of Jewish Holocaust victims were taken care of in France.
- Sudden Courage: Youth in France Confront the Germans, 1940 – 1945 by Ronald Rosbottom – Tells the incredible story of the youngest members of the French Resistance—many only teenagers—who waged a hidden war against the Nazi occupiers and their collaborators in Paris and across France. Though many French citizens adapted and many even allied themselves with the new fascist leadership, a resistance arose among Jews, immigrants, communists, workers, writers, police officers, shop owners, including many young people in their teens and twenties.
- A Portrait of Pacifists: Le Chambon, the Holocaust, and the Lives of André and Magda Trocmé by Richard Unsworth – Explores the lives of heralded Holocaust rescuers Andre and Magda Trocme, and the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon France who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis.
America – Where were you???
I could not resist leaving this book out. Land of the “free”, home of the “brave…” – the U.S. finally entered the war and was present to liberate Jews from concentration camps at the end of the war. However, there was a period of lethargy before that…
- The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between by Michael Dobbs – In 1938, on the eve of World War II, the American journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote that “a piece of paper with a stamp on it” was “the difference between life and death.” The Unwanted is the intimate account of a small village on the edge of the Black Forest whose Jewish families desperately pursued American visas to flee the Nazis. Battling formidable bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States while others are unable to obtain the necessary documents. Some are murdered in Auschwitz, their applications for American visas still “pending.”
For those of us for whom non-fiction is to difficult to read, there are a few novels that I came across. Most are meant for younger children.
- Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky – published posthumously, this novel was written by a famous Jewish novelist who was denied French citizenship due to her Jewish heritage despite her recognition as an author. Sometimes criticized as a “self-hating” Jew, she, nevertheless, suffered as a result of her ethnicity. She died in Auschwitz of typhus. This novel is unique in that it reflects experiences of Jews in France during the era (as opposed to by reflection/memories). Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. The novel remained hidden for 64 years until its discovery.
- Greater Than Angels by Carol Mata – based on the true story of a French village, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, that banded together to protect the Jews during WWII. In the autumn of 1940, Anna Hirsch and her friends and family are rounded up by Nazis and deported to Gurs, a refugee camp in the south of France. Food is scarce, and the living conditions inhumane. Anna and the other children are moved not to the death camps, Auschwitz or Buchenwald, but Le Chambon-sur-Lignon: a tiny village whose citizens have agreed to care for deported Jewish children.
- A Pocket Full of Seeds by Marilyn Sachs (Author), Ben Stahl (Illustrator) – Nicole, who is 8, and her family feel safe in France during the German occupation since they are non-religious Jews. They soon realize that non-religious Jews are in as much danger as religious ones.
- Twenty And Ten by Claire H. Bishop (Author), William Pene Du Bois (Illustrator) – Meant for young readers, this is a story about twenty school children hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis occupying France during World War II.
- Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer – Sydney Taylor Honor Award Winner Black Radishes is a suspenseful WWII/Holocaust story in which Gustave flees Paris during Nazi occupation for the countryside. When Paris is captured by the Nazis, Gustave knows that Marcel, Jean-Paul, and their families must make it out of the occupied zone. He works with his new friend, Nicole, who works for the French Resistance, to come up with a plan.


Foreign languages, now known as second languages (L2), world languages, and languages other than English (LOTE), are a continuously evolving area of education. As student characteristics change over the years, techniques must also adapt to fit the needs of today’s students. One approach being used is the Meaningful and Motivating strategy, nicknamed the “M & M” approach. This approach is successful because of the components of brain-based learning, and the idea of a quality classroom. Sometimes integrated with the M & M approach are the areas of multiple intelligences, total physical response storytelling, and the introduction of technology into the LOTE classroom.
The M & M approach is broken down into five key elements to ensure teachers plan meaningful lessons to keep students motivated to learn. First, students are actively involved and have fun, and this is achieved by implementing activities which are hands-on and are meaningful to the learner (Sherwood, 1). Secondly, there is an emphasis on quality, which is accomplished by creating a syllabus with a theme and allowing student choice and responsibility (Sherwood, 1). Using this strategy, students learn other concepts while they are leaning the language, including skills for living, journaling and portfolio creation (Sherwood, 1). Students are also encouraged to realize there is not one BEST way to learn, and that everyone is capable of learning (Sherwood, 1). Finally, the M & M approach is characterized by thinking skills as an integral part of every lesson, which is best accomplished by inductive lessons (Sherwood, 1). In a personal interview, Candace Sherwood, nationally renowned speaker and LOTE presenter, explained the usefulness of the M & M approach.
“Teaching students things we learn in methods classes is key. They need to know about [Gardner’s] multiple intelligences. It’s not enough for us to plan diverse lessons. They need to be aware of where their strengths and weaknesses are, as well as to appreciate the same amongst their peers.”
The M & M approach works because of two key theory components: brain-based learning and the idea of a quality classroom. Brain-based learning, formulated by Regate and Geoffrey Caine, involves a foundation of twelve facts, but these can be combined into six focused ideas:
1) The brain is a parallel processor, which deals with “thoughts, emotions, imagination and predispositions that operate concurrently and interactively as the entire system interacts and exchanges information in the environment” (Caine).
2) Learning engages a student’s entire physiology. The implications of this fact for educators is the realization that everything that affects students’ physiological functioning affects their capacity to learn, including stress management, nutrition and amount of sleep (Principles).
3) The search of meaning is innate. This means that the “learning environment needs to provide stability and familiarityÃ¢Â?Â¦ and provision must be made for students to satisfy their curiosity and hunger for novelty, discovery and challenge” (Principles).
4) Emotions are critical to patterning, which refers to the “meaningful organization and categorization of information” (Caine). “The brain is designed to perceive and generate patterns, and it resists having meaningless patterns imposed on it,” thus teachers are encouraged to use thematic teaching, integrating of the curriculum, and life-relevant approaches to learning (Caine, Principles). The way students pattern things are influenced by emotions and “mind sets based on expectancy, personal biases and prejudices, degree of self-esteem, and the need for social interaction,” and emotions and thoughts cannot be separated (Caine).
5) There are two types of memory: spatial and rote learning. Students have a “spatial/autobiographical memory that does not need rehearsal and allows for instant recall” (Caines). This memory is “always engaged,” yet the two ways of organizing memory are stored differently (Caines). By ignoring the personal world of the learner, “educators actually inhibit the effective functioning of the brain” (Principles).
6) The brain understands and remembers best if facts/skills are embedded in natural spatial memory, which means giving students real-life events and examples. Just as our native language is learned through “multiple interactive experiences with vocabulary and grammar,” it is shaped both by “internal processes and by social interaction” (Caines). Keeping this in mind, teachers need to use a great deal of real-life activities, including “classroom demonstrations, projects, field trips, visual imagery, stories, metaphors, drama, and interaction of different subjects” (Principles).
Combined with the foundations of brain-based learning to make the M & M approach a success is William Glasser’s idea of a quality school teacher and quality classroom. A quality school is achieved by “using lead-management rather than boss-management principles,” and this requires six phases, with the first being the most crucial (Glasser). The first stage occurs when “relationships are based upon trust and respect, and all discipline problems, not incidents, have been eliminated” (Glasser). This quality school is made up of “quality school teachers” and “quality classrooms,” which are also defined by Glasser. In a quality classroom:
1) There is a warm, supportive classroom environment.
2) Students should be asked to do useful work.
3) Students are always asked to do the best they can do.
4) Students are asked to evaluate their own work and improve it.
5) Quality work always feels good.
6) Quality work is never destructive.
Together, Glasser’s ideas of a quality classroom and Caines and Caines’ belief in brain-based learning make the Motivated and Meaningful approach to LOTE classrooms a success.
A different approach to teaching in a LOTE classroom is using Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences as a base. With a core of seven distinct areas of intelligence, Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences has been incorporated into classrooms around the world since its publication in 1983. Gardner defined intelligence as “the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one of more cultural setting” (Gardner & Hatch, 8). His new outlook differed substantially from the traditional view, which focuses on two intelligences, verbal and computational. In the book Frames of Mind, Gardner’s seven intelligences are:
1) Logical-Mathematical: the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically, usually associated with scientific and mathematical thinking.
2) Linguistic: having a mastery of language, includes the ability to effectively manipulate language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically, allows one to use language as a means to remember information.
3) Spatial: the ability to manipulate and create mental images in order to solve problems, not limited to visual domains.
4) Musical: the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones and rhythms.
5) Bodily-Kinesthetic: the ability to use one’s mental abilities to coordinate one’s own bodily movements, allows mental and physical activity to be related.
6) Interpersonal: the ability to understand the feelings and intentions of others.
7) Intrapersonal: the ability to understand one’s own feelings and motivations. (Gardner; Sherwood, 43 – 44).
Newly added to Gardner’s intelligences are naturalistic and existential intelligences. In 1996, Gardner updated his theory published in Frames of Mind and explained naturalistic intelligence as the ability to recognize plants, animals and other parts of natural environment such as rocks, trees, flowers and clouds (Checkley, 52). Students with a strong naturalistic intelligence may like doing activities related to nature, such as fishing, hiking and/or camping. Students using existential intelligence will like and enjoy thinking and questioning, and will be curious about life, death, and ultimate realities. Gardner defines this intelligence as to “exhibit the proclivity to pose and ponder questions about life, death and ultimate realities,” and students using this intelligence will show curiosity about what the earth was like years ago, if there is life on another planet, where living things go after they die, and if there are ghosts or spirits (Reframed, 60 – 64).
Many teachers use the idea of multiple intelligences when planning lessons, keeping in mind the varying ways their students learn best. Examples of combining the idea of multiple intelligences with the M & M approach are easy to come by, as element four specifically deals with Gardner’s theory. Students understand that there is not one BEST way to learn can be easily achieved by applying multiple intelligences to one’s curriculum. Linguistic learners master concepts best using teaching strategies like discussions, word games, storytelling, and journals; while logical-mathematical learners understand easiest through puzzles, problem solving, and activities involving grammar and syntax (Sherwood, 44). Visual presentations and art activities are effective tools to use with visual-spatial learners, with drama, hands-on learning and physical movement for bodily-kinesthetic learners (Sherwood, 44). Using songs, rhythms, and dialects will help musical learners (Sherwood, 44). Interpersonal learners understand best through cooperative learning, projects, games and small group activities, while intrapersonal learners flourish with individualized instruction, journals and independent projects (Sherwood, 44). Although it may seem overwhelming and nearly impossible to design each lesson to meet the demands of Gardner’s theory, allowing student choice helps to make the theory a reality. For example, after students finish learning about the grammar concept of subjunctive/subjuntivo, which does not occur in English, assigning students to complete one of five possible tasks (each corresponding to differing intelligences), allows for authentic assessment in the way a student learns best.
Opponents in the educational field and in varying disciplines do not encourage using multiple intelligences mainly due to reasons associated with assessment (Grabowski). Some believe they are not useful and give students a false sense of security and success, meaning that when a student leaves the educational setting s/he will not be able to sing a song at work instead of writing a report. Gardner combats this thinking by explaining that those with strong linguistic intelligence will seek out careers that allow them to thrive, including poets (Seven Steps). Scientists usually have strong logicial-mathematical intelligence, composers have increased musical intelligence, airplane pilots and sculptors use spatial intelligence, and athletes and dancers have increased bodily kinesthetic intelligence (Seven Steps). Salesmen and teachers are known for having strong interpersonal intelligence, yet many still disagree with the use of Gardner’s theory past middle school. While Gardner’s multiple intelligences are widely used in elementary classrooms, as students age, thus the emphasis reverts back to verbal and computational.
R1: If students are aware of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, are they more
successful in achieving academic goals?
R2: Can Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences be incorporated successfully into the
M & M approach at all grade levels?
A new area of focus in the LOTE classroom has been total physical response storytelling, commonly known as TPRS or TPR Storytelling. TPRS if a methodology created by Blaine Ray of California, and it was specifically designed for second language education. Based upon the work of Stephen Krasher and James Asher, this technique uses TPR as its basic concept, but expands it in order to “create a more meaningful and contextualized environment for learning a foreign language”(Sherwood, 52). There are two critical concepts to understand about TPRS: learning (understanding about the language) and acquisition (an unconscious process with a focus on the meaning) (Sherwood, 52). One downfall of this strategy is that students may feel they have not learned anything since the learner is “picking up the language” in a very non-traditional way (Sherwood, 52). According to Blaine Ray, three things that don’t work in acquisition are forced speech beyond the acquisition level (listening and merely repeating), error correction, and the study of grammar rules. Many experienced teachers are not willing to try this strategy because of the lack of grammar instruction, which many believe is the bedrock of learning a second language. The underlying principle of TPRS is acquisition of the target language (Sherwood, 52). According to Ray, this communicative strategy is made up of five key elements:
1) Language must be taught in context.
2) Language must be comprehensible.
3) Learning has an element of realism.
4) Class should be taught so it is interesting.
5) Students need to learn a foreign language for their long-term memory, not just memorize for tests.
In order to better understand what TPRS is all about, it is a necessity to review the basic concepts, as well as offer illustrative examples for incorporating this technique into the classroom. The first step to using TPRS is to select a vocabulary list, then the teacher gestures each word to the class. The students repeat the word with the gesture, using “novel TPR commands” (Sherwood, 53). The instructor then tells a story using the vocabulary words, and when each word comes up the teacher gestures and the students do as well. After the story is completed, personal questions and answers (P.Q.A.) are discussed, and personalized mini-situations (P.M.S.) take place for a period of one to four days, with new vocabulary being introduced and acted out as necessary (Sherwood). A mini-story takes place for about one week, with students incorporating old and current vocabulary, and the final phase of TPRS occurs when a chapter story takes place after about seven weeks of mini stories (Ray).
Personalized mini-situations are a key element in using TPRS. According to Ray, these are created by first telling a story in the target language using a few students as actors. The teacher will use only a short list of vocabulary – usually only one to four words – that the students need to learn. Then the teacher then retells the story and asks questions of the class, which are usually simply yes/no questions but, like the story, are in the target language. Individual students retell the story again as the teacher acts it out; this is usually done by a high level L2 student, which uses the strategy of differentiated instruction. The next phase is to have many students help tell the story together, allowing each only fifteen seconds to tell as much of the story as possible then moving on to another student who continues the story. If further practice is needed, Ray suggests groups of students draw the events of the story. The following day the process continues, as the P.M.S. is repeated to ensure all students understood it, and reteaching is done as necessary. Assessment is done through the teacher making mistakes on purpose for the students to correct.
In order to implement TPRS and have the maximum impact possible, Ray offers many suggestions. Teachers should personalize words and put them in context, for example to teach oso, the Spanish word for bear, an instructor could relate it to the school’s mascot. Those certified by Ray in TPRS methodology always “eliminate the normal and exaggerate!” (Sherwood, 53). Using proper names of celebrities, such as Brad Pitt is another tactic used to help students remember stories, and therefore vocabulary (Ray). A teacher should always try to make students look good in the situation, and should act like what is being said is real, even if it is false information (Sherwood, 53). Remembering to use specific situations instead of general, and using appropriate level words during the entire story, as ALL words in the L2 must be comprehensible (Sherwood). Finally, teachers should be sure to prepare student actors ahead of time by whispering what they should do, and also use hand signals to guide students to act in a certain way. Incorporating these strategies into a TPRS classroom is crucial for its success.
Opponents of TPRS believe not enough vocabulary is covered, with only one-hundred specific words being focused on in an average seven-week chapter story unit. Many also believe that older students may not benefit as much, due to the similarities of TPRS to elementary school same-language vocabulary acquisition (Triplett). Students may even be insulted by the technique if not familiar with the foundation of TPRS (Triplett). Some educators are not convinced of its effectiveness, as few classrooms with a state assessment rely solely on TPRS as a methodology (Triplett). However, as the desire to learn more about TPRS increases, Blaine Ray continues to offer workshops and seminars around the world to faculty of all language backgrounds and skill levels. Currently TPRS is used most often in elementary LOTE classrooms, yet it is beginning to gain popularity with middle and secondary L2 educators.
R3: Is TPRS a successful strategy for 7 – 12 language acquisition in LOTE
R4: Do students respond positively to TPRS teaching strategies in 7 – 12 LOTE
Including technology is the classroom is not a new phenomenon, and many teachers use basic technological devices on a daily basis. Televisions, VCRs, tape recorders and stereos, as well as overheads are common place in many schools today. Unfortunately, LOTE classrooms are often times at the bottom of the list for departmental funding (Grabowski). Technology such as listening centers, projectors, new computer software and interactive DVDs are beginning to be found in L2 classrooms across the country. In order to justify funding for LOTE classrooms, it is important to determine the usefulness of technology specifically to L2 acquisition.
R5: Does technology positively affect student participation and achievement in
It is the hope that the data collected from this study will help to guide the future of L2 methodology instruction. By explaining why teachers choose the activities they do, what works best for student participation and academic achievement, in an effort to change the future of LOTE education. In order to gain acceptance as more than a special area subject, this study seeks to substantiate effective teaching techniques, as well as decipher ways to integrate many newly emerging teaching techniques into different levels of LOTE education.
In order to answer the research questions, I propose an ethnographic study of twelve LOTE teachers. These would be divided into three groups with five teachers in each.
Group A: Four (4) New York State certified elementary school LOTE teachers
currently teaching LOTE full-time with students from grades K – 4.
Group B: Four (4) New York State certified middle school LOTE teachers
currently teaching LOTE full-time with students from grades 5 – 8.
Group C: Four (4) New York State certified high school LOTE teachers currently
teaching LOTE full-time with students from grades 9 – 12.
All teachers that participate must have tenure with at least three years in current position/grade level assignment, and must be certified in area and specific grade levels being taught. They will all be selected from NYS public schools, as the 8th grade NYS Proficiency Exam and the 11th grade NYS Regents Exam will be used as part of an evaluative tool. Five districts will be chosen to help with the study, with one teacher from each group participating. This limits the schools dramatically, as many districts do not have elementary LOTE programs, yet it is important to select schools that have a commitment to L2 education for the study to be as successful as possible. Teachers will nominate their schools with the use of FLTeach, a worldwide LOTE education LISTSERV based at SUNY Cortland with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (cortland.edu).
I will pose as a college student doing my pre-student teaching (which means I would be there in order to complete twenty hours of observations in each grade level) in each of the high school classrooms. It is not uncommon for pre-student teachers and student teachers to have forms for the teacher to fill out including teaching methodologies used. The reason pre-student teaching has been chosen is because college students engaged in pre-student teaching are not required at any time to plan lessons or instruct the classroom, thus allowing the observer role to remain intact. Many students are also already familiar with the procedures of a student teacher, and during these times teachers usually perform at their peak, in an attempt to pass their wisdom on to the teacher-to-be, thus students would not question the techniques used by the teacher. The teachers being observed would be aware that I was gathering information to become a better teacher.
As I am certified in 7 – 12 Spanish in accordance with the standards that will change February 1, 2004, one observer specialized in grades 5 – 8 as well as a K-12 certified LOTE instructor will be necessary to observe groups A and B respectfully. The reason a K – 12 certified teacher is a requirement to work with group A is due to the lack of specific K – 4 NYS special area certification. Other researchers will follow the same procedure, posing as pre-student teachers in each of the selected classrooms.
Researchers will keep detailed notes, and will ask the teachers for clarification during planning time. This is essential everyday, as the reason behind choosing specific activities must accompany data. Students response and participation must be documented, as well as specific comments made during activities/lessons. Teachers will not be surprised at the informal questioning, as pre-student teachers must gather information on a wide variety of teaching strategies and foundations while in methods classes.
Data will be analyzed by all three observers separately. Once reports have been written by all three observers dealing with the research questions and data collected, discussions can begin surrounding implications of the research findings. Round-table conversations will take place over a series of days, with follow-up questionnaires being designed and mailed and/or phone or in-person interviews conducted with participating teachers as necessary for clarification of data/research findings. Research could be used to help design a new L2 methodology textbook.
“It’s not how smart you are that matters, what really counts is how you are smart.”
– Howard Gardner
Caine, Renate Numela and Geoggrey Caine. Unleashing the Power of Perceptual Change: The Potential of Brain-Based Teaching. Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997.
Checkley, Kathy. “The First SevenÃ¢Â?Â¦ and the Eighth.” Educational Leadership. 55.1
(1997): 45 – 53.
“FLTeach: Foreign Language Teaching Forum.” .
Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books Inc., 1983. – -. “Intelligence in Seven Steps.” New Horizons for Learning Online Journal. Spring 2003. .
– -. Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000.
Gardner, Howard and Tom Hatch. “Multiple Intelligences go to school: Educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences.” Educational Researcher. 18.8 (1993): 4 – 9.
Glasser, William. The Quality School. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1992. Reprinted online: . – -. The Quality School Teacher. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1993.
Grabowski, Ada, PhD. Superientendent, Albion Central School. Interview with the author. 10 Nov. 2003.
“Principles of Brain-Based Learning.” Developed by the Combined Elementary Task Forces of the Metropolitan Omaha Educational Consortium (MOEC). Omaha: University of Nebraska, 1999.
Ray, Blaine. E-mail to the author. 20 Nov. 2003.
Sherwood, Candace. Strengthening Foreign Language Instruction. Washington: Bureau of Education & Research, 2002.
Triplett, Frank, PhD. Head of the Department of World Languages, Mount Union College. E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2003.


Date of Publication: 01 March 2022
Throughout history, some of the most influential women have been writers, poets and essayists; breaking social barriers, challenging the status quo and questioning the rules through the art of their writing.
From the pioneering voices of the late 18th and early 19th Century through to modern day feminist contemporaries in the literary sphere, women have long shaped the landscape of literature, of cultures around the world, and of history with their ingenious creative writing talents.
In honour of International Women’s Day, we wanted to share just a small selection of the most pioneering female writers in history. Each of the authors featured on this list have gone down in history as some of the greatest artists in history, with various film and TV adaptations made from their work.
1. Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)
English novelist Jane Austen is one of the most famous 18th Century novelists, known primarily for her six major novels. One of the earliest female writers to produce works that critiqued and commented on the British landed gentry, Austen was a writer who focused on plots which explored the dependence of women on marriage, or women who were in the pursuit of economic security.
As such, many of Austen’s works were published anonymously, meaning that she enjoyed little fame during her life. It was after her death that she gained far more status as a writer, with her six full-length novels rarely having been out of print. There have also been several film adaptations of her works, with a number of critical essays and anthologies accompanying them.
Jane Austen’s famous works:
- Sense and Sensibility (1811) – First published anonymously by ‘A Lady,’ it tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne as they come of age and are forced to move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up.
- Pride and Prejudice (1813) – A novel following the character Elizabeth Bennet, who learns about the repercussions of hasty decision-making and the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
- Emma (1815) – A comedy of manners, depicting the concerns of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England, focusing on issues of marriage, sex, age and social status.
2. Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
Second on our list of famous female writers in history is famous Gothic fiction writer, Mary Shelley. Recognised as one of the early creators of science fiction, she was also a prominent editor, working mainly on the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher, Robert Bysshe Shelley.
Born to political philosopher William Godwin and feminist activist, Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was raised solely by her father after her mother’s premature death. Having been provided a rich yet informal education, with her father promoting a lifestyle of anarchism, Shelley married early and pursued a life predominantly dedicated to promoting her husband’s works but also towards writing fiction.
Mary Shelley’s famous works:
- Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) – Written when Shelley was just 18 years old, the story follows young scientist Victor Frankenstein who accidentally creates a sapient creature during an unorthodox experiment.
- Valperga (1823) – A historical novel set amongst the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines which retells the adventures of Castruccio Castracani – a real historical figure who became the Lord of Lucca and conquered Florence, Italy.
- Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) – A travel narrative published in two volumes that describes two European trips Shelley took with her son, Percy, and several of his university friends.
3. Emily Brontë (1818 – 1848)
Sister to the aforementioned Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë was another famous female writer of the Victorian era who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights (which also features on our list of classic books to read for students!)
Publishing her work under the pen name, Ellis Bell, Brontë was also a prolific poet, with her writing at the time and still today regarded as ‘genius.’ Her most famous collection of works, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, was a collection of pieces published with her sisters Charlotte and Anne under their pseudo-names.
Emily Brontë’s famous works
- Poems by Currer Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846) – A volume of poetry published jointly by the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. It was their first work to ever go to print.
- Wuthering Heights (1847) – A prime influence of Romantic and Gothic fiction which concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors – the Earnshaws and the Lintons – the book follows their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw’s adopted son, Heathcliff.
4. Charlotte Brontë (1816 – 1855)
One of the most famous Victorian female writers in history, Charlotte Brontë is best known for her novels, including Jane Eyre (1847). The eldest of one of three sisters who survived into adulthood, she became an author only after she and her sisters attempted to open a school – which failed to launch.
Although her first novel, The Professor, was initially rejected by publishers, it was her second novel, Jane Eyre which was well-received by critics and has gone on to become a capsule piece in the history of British literature.
Setting the characteristic tropes of Victorian literature, Brontë was one of the earliest authors to experiment with different poetic forms, including the long narrative and dramatic monologue – but later gave up on poetic writing after the success of her prose.
Charlotte Brontë’s famous works
- Jane Eyre (1847) – This coming-of-age novel follows the journey of its eponymous heroine, including her love for Mr Rochester and his home at Thornfield Hall.
- Shirley (1849) – Set in Yorkshire during the industrial depression of the early 19th Century, the story follows characters during the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry.
- Villette (1853) – Follows the protagonist, Lucy Snowe, as she flees a family disaster and travels to the fictional city of Villette in France to teach at a girls’ school, where she’s drawn into adventure and romance.
5. Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888)
American novelist, short story writer and poet, Louisa May Alcott, may be best known as the author of Little Women, but has made a much larger literary contribution than you may have first thought.
Raised in New England by her parents and Abigail and Amos, Alcott was one of four daughters in the family. Just like the four sisters in her famous novel do, Alcott worked hard to support her family’s struggling financial situation, using writing as an outlet when she had the time.
Published in 1868, Little Women was her first major literary success, after having written for the Atlantic Monthly from 1860. In the early 1860s, she also published a number of lurid short stories for adults under her pen name, A. M. Barnard, in an attempt to break onto the literary scene.
Once a popular household name with her debut novel, Alcott became an active member of various abolitionist and feminist reform movements, including working towards women’s suffrage, which she continued to support throughout her life until her passing in 1888.
Louisa May Alcott’s famous works:
- Moods (1864) – Alcott’s first novel which tells the story of passionate tomboy, Sylvia Yule, who embarks on a camping trip with her brother and his two friends, both of whom fall in love with her.
- Little Women (1868) – Coming-of-age novel following the lives of four sisters and their journey through genteel poverty as children into womanhood.
- Little Men (1871) – Sequel to Alcott’s famous Little Women, reprising characters from the original – Jo Bhaer, her husband, and the various children at Plumfield Estate School.
6. Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946)
Pioneering American novelist, poet, playwright and art collector, Gertrude Stein was a key figure in early twentieth century feminism – both in a literal and literary sense – who rose to mainstream attention thanks to her ‘quirky’ lifestyle and modernist writing style.
As an advocate of the avant-garde, she shaped an artistic movement that broke the traditional norms of femininity, writing style and form. Her experimental creative styles included the use of broken grammar and illogical writing flows, as featured in her 1914 novel Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Room, as well as repetition to emphasise and re-shape traditional concepts in her later works like, The Making of Americans.
Although born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then raised in California, it was Paris, France, that Stein moved to as an adult that she called home for the remainder of her life. During her time here, she hosted a salon in Paris, where leading figures in literature and art would meet and share their work. Notable attendees included Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Gertrude Stein’s famous works:
- Three Lives (1909) – Separated into three separate stories, ‘The Good Anna,’ ‘Melanctha,’ and ‘The Gentle Lena,’ which follow three different lives of working-class women living in Baltimore.
- Tender Buttons (1914) – Consisting of three separate sections; ‘Objects,’ ‘Food,’ and ‘Rooms,’ the book consists of poems about the mundanities of everyday life, whilst experimental language keeps the subjects unfamiliar and engaging.
- The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family’s Progress (1925) – A novel which traces the genealogy, history, and psychological development of members of two fictional families.
7. Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941)
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an early 20th-century writer from England. Considered to be one of the most modernist authors of her period, Woolf not only challenged the social injustices on women in the early 1900s, but also tested and embedded different literary devices into our modern lexicon of creative writing.
For example, Woolf is considered a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device, especially in one of her more famous novels, A Room of One’s Own.
Born into a blended family of eight, Woolf lived in an affluent household in South Kensington, London with her mother, father, and five siblings. She was home-schooled in English Classics and Victorian Literature before attending the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London to study Classics and History.
Encouraged by her father, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900, eventually moving to the more bohemian Bloomsbury area of London, where she was part of the formation of the famous Bloomsbury Group.
Throughout her life and even long after she passed, Woolf has remained a prominent literary figure; in 1917 she married her husband Leonard Woolf, who she went on to found the Hogarth Press with, a publishing house which published much of her work; she published over 20 different works; and was the central subject of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, cited as “inspiring” and drawing much attention to her literature.
Virginia Woolf’s famous works:
- Mrs Dalloway (1925) – Fictional high-societal Clarissa Dalloway living in post-First World War England shares the details of a day in her life.
- To the Lighthouse (1927) – A philosophical introspection novel which centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.
- A Room of One’s Own (1929) – An extended essay, based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College (both constituent colleges at the University of Cambridge) about social injustices against women.
8. Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976)
Detective crime writer Dame Agatha Christie is recognised by the Guinness World Records as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, with her novels having sold more than two billion copies around the world.
Famed for creating the fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, she also wrote the longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which has been running in the West End since 1952.
Born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Devon, she eventually moved to Wallingford in Oxfordshire with her husband, where she passed away aged 85.
Christie’s works remain popular amongst detective fiction fans, (with her even featuring on our list of classic authors to read!), with several of her works having been transformed into TV and film adaptations.
Agatha Christie’s famous works:
- Murder on the Orient Express (1934) – During Poirot’s trip home to London from the Middle East on the Orient Express, snowfall brings the train to a halt. A murder is discovered, and detective Poirot is forced to solve the case.
- The A.B.C. Murders (1936) – Featuring crime detective Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp – the characters are forced to contend with a series of killings by a mysterious murderer known only as “A.B.C.”
- The Mousetrap (1952) – The longest-running West End show, this murder mystery play was written as a birthday present for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. The plot is still unknown amongst those who have not seen the stage play, with the audience asked not to reveal the twist at the end when they leave the theatre.
9. Harper Lee (1926 – 2016)
Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, Harper Lee, was an American writer best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The book went on to win her the Prize in 1961 and pushed her into literary success as an acclaimed writer.
Lee’s childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, is what inspired her idea for the novel. Her father, a former newspaper editor, businessman and lawyer, served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. During his time in this role, he defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both men were found guilty of the act and hanged – setting the plot of Harper Lee’s famous novel.
Thanks to the book’s widespread success, Lee has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Fiction in 2015, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 for her contributions to literature.
Today, Harper Lee’s works are widely taught in schools in the United States, encouraging students to learn more about how to empathise tolerance and dissipate prejudice towards others. In 2006, British librarians even ranked the book ahead of the Bible, calling it a novel that “every adult should read before they die.”
Harper Lee’s famous works:
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) – A novel about justice, that deals with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. Loosely based on Lee’s observations of an event that occurred near her hometown when she was a child.
- Go Set a Watchman (2015) – The second of only two novels published by Harper Lee. First published as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, it is now widely accepted that Go Set a Watchman was a first draft of the aforementioned book, drawing parallels with the original plot.
10. Toni Morrison (1931 – 2019)
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison was an American novelist and editor, made famous by her ability to depict the Black American experience in her writing with such authenticity; in an unjust society, her characters typically struggle to find themselves and their cultural identity; while her use of poetic style and often fantastical style of writing give her stories great strength and texture.
After achieving an MA in American Literature at Cornell University in the mid-to-late 1950s, Morrison established herself in the literary world when she secured a role as first black female editor in fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s and mid ‘80s that Morrison developed her reputation as an author and published her most famous works.
Morrison was incredibly successful as an author, receiving several awards and accolades for her work. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom; in 2016, she received the Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction; and in 2020, Morrison was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Toni Morrison’s famous works:
- The Bluest Eye (1970) – Morrison’s first novel tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression.
- Sula (1973) – Morrison’s second novel focuses on a young black girl named Sula as she comes of age during a period of harsh adversity and distrust, even hatred, within the black community that she lives in.
- Beloved (1987) – Set after the American Civil War, Beloved tells the story of former slaves who Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. The novel is inspired by an event that actually happened in Kentucky: when an enslaved person, Margaret Garner, escaped and fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856.
11. Margaret Atwood (1939 – )
Canadian-born poet and novelist, Margaret Atwood, is most famous for creating the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, which has subsequently led to tremendous success – including a hit US TV series adaptation of the original book.
As a literary artist, Atwood covers a variety of themes across time but which still remain relevant today, including themes on gender and identity, religion, climate change, ‘power politics’ and the power of language. And it’s her combination of these themes with sharp literary tongue which makes her the subject of study for many A-Level syllabi.
Atwood has won numerous awards for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards, amongst many others.
Margaret Atwood’s famous works:
- The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) – Dystopian novel set in a near-future New England in a strongly patriarchal, totalitarian state which has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator, Offred, is one of a group of ‘handmaids’ who are forcibly assigned to produce children for ‘commanders’ – the ruling class of men in the state.
- Alias Grace (1996) – A novel of historic fiction which re-tells the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Canada, where two of the servants in the household were convicted of the crime.
- The Testaments (2019) – A sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ set 15 years after the events of the original. Narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman living under state control; and Daisy, a young woman living in the free country of Canada.
12. Alice Walker (1944 – )
Although all the female writers on our list are very much accomplished in their own right, Alice Walker certainly stands out as one of the most successful in female literary history.
In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Color Purple. Since then, she’s also been awarded over 15 different awards for her fiction work and social activism, including the Domestic Human Rights Award from Global Exchange (2007) and being inducted into both the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame (2001) and the California Hall of Fame for History, Women and the Arts (2006).
During her career, she has also published seventeen novels and short stories, twelve non-fiction works, and various collections of essays and poetry.
Alice Walker’s famous works:
- Meridian (1976) – Described as Walker’s “meditation on the modern civils right movement,” ‘Meridian’ follows a young black woman in the late 1960s who is attending college at a time when the civil rights movement begins to turn volatile.
- The Color Purple (1982) – This epistolary novel follows the life of Celie, a poor, uneducated 14-year-old girl living in the Southern United States in the early 1900s who shares her story through a series of letters to God.
- Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) – Follows the story of Tashi, a minor character who features in Walker’s earlier novel, ‘The Color Purple.’ Now in the US we watch her battle an internal conflict between her new culture and the heritage she’s entrenched in.
13. Octavia E. Butler (1947 – 2006)
American author, Octavia Estelle Butler, was an award-winning female writer who rose to fame in the literary industry in the late 1970s after releasing a series of novels in the science fiction genre.
Acclaimed for her sharp prose, strong protagonists and social commentaries on society from the distant past through to the far future, she also frequently wrote on themes of racial injustice, global warming, women’s rights and political disparity.
Butler’s writing received a tremendous amount of attention, making her a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards and a recipient of the PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1995, she also became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Today, many of her books remain a common choice for high school and college syllabi.
Octavia E. Butler’s famous works:
- Kindred (1979) – Incorporating time travel and slave narratives, the book follows a young African-American woman writer, Dana, who finds herself stuck in time between her LA home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation.
- Parable of the Sower (1993) – A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, this apocalyptic science fiction novel provides commentary on climate change and social inequality. It follows central protagonist Lauren Olamina in her quest for freedom.
- Parable of the Talents (1998) – Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the novel consists of journal entries from Lauren Olamina (previous protagonist in Parable of the Sower) and her husband Taylor Bankole after having founded a new community called Acorn.
14. J. K. Rowling (1965 – )
Joanne Rowling OBE, better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, film producer and screenplay writer, best known for being the author of the bestselling Harry Potter book series.
After working as a researcher and secretary for Amnesty International, in 1990 Rowling conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while sitting on a delayed train to London. For seven years, Rowling worked on the first book draft, which was initially rejected by twelve different publishers before being eventually purchased by Barry Cunningham – giving her the platform she needed to launch her fantastical book series.
Having won multiple awards and having sold more than 500 million copies of her works, Rowling is the best-selling living author in Britain and recognised as the best-selling children’s author in history.
J. K. Rowling’s famous works:
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) – The first book in the series; Harry is a wizard who lives with his non-magical (muggle) relatives until his eleventh birthday when he is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book followed with six sequeuls, following Harry’s adventuress at Hogwarts with friends Hermione and Ron and his attempts to defeat Lord Voldemort, who murdered Harry’s parents when he was a child.
- The Casual Vacancy (2012) – Rowling’s first book for adult readership is a mature murder mystery which explore complex themes such as class, politics and adult social issues. The novel was the fastest-selling in the UK in three years and had the second best-selling opening week for an adult novel ever.
15. Zadie Smith (1975 – )
Sadie Adeline Smith is an English novelist, essayist and short story writer who rose to fame back in the year 2000 after her debut novel, White Teeth became an international bestseller. This initial success has since led her to win a number of awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Betty Trask Award.
White Teeth set the tone of Smith’s subsequent writing style. Known for her novels’ eccentric characters, savvy humour and snappy dialogue, her fiction often deals with discussions on the treatment of race, religion and cultural identity.
Since Smith’s early successes, she has gone on to enjoy a lifelong career in the literary world. She began serving as writer-in-residence at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, before teaching fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts. Since 2010, she has been a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University while also being a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books.
Zadie Smith’s famous works:
- White Teeth (2000) – Centred on Britain’s relationship with immigrants from the British Commonwealth, Smith’s debut novel focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends and their families in London.
- On Beauty (2005) – Smith’s third novel won the Women’s Prize for Fiction tells the story of two families – each set between New England and London – with events spurred on by a long-time professional rivalry of the two protagonists.
- Grand Union (2019) – This is a collection of 11 new and previously unpublished short stories, as well as snippets of work from The New Yorker and other renowned publications.
Follow in the footsteps of these female literary heroes
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During a 2-week course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of creative writing and put its key techniques into practice as you work on your own piece of prose. You’ll be joined by a small group of other passionate students (no more than 8 students per class) and have the opportunity to workshop your work with one another for the most constructive course possible.