May Sinclair

Born Mary Amelia St. Clair in Rock Ferry, Cheshire, in 1863, May Sinclair became one of the most versatile British writers of her time. She wrote novels, short stories, poetry, criticism, and philosophy, and her career stretched from the late Victorian period into the heart of literary modernism.

She first won wide attention with The Divine Fire in 1904, and later earned lasting admiration for psychologically rich novels such as The Three Sisters and The Life and Death of Harriett Frean. Sinclair was also an active supporter of women's suffrage and a serious literary critic, remembered in part for helping bring attention to new modernist writing.

What makes her especially interesting now is the range of her mind: she was drawn to fiction, feminism, philosophy, and emerging ideas in psychology all at once. That mix gives her work an intensity and inwardness that still feels fresh, even though her reputation faded for a time after her death in 1946.