author
Olive Pratt Rayner
Best known as the name on The Type-Writer Girl, this was actually a pseudonym used by Canadian writer Grant Allen for a witty, independent-minded novel about a young woman making her own way in the world. The name has since become closely linked with one of the liveliest New Woman stories of the 1890s.
1 Audiobook
The type-writer girl
by Olive Pratt Rayner
About the author
Olive Pratt Rayner was not a separate author but a pen name used by Grant Allen (1848–1899), a Canadian-born writer and critic. Allen wrote widely on science, evolution, travel, and fiction, and he published under several names during his career.
The name Olive Pratt Rayner is chiefly associated with The Type-Writer Girl (1897). The novel follows Juliet Appleton, a young woman trying to support herself with her typewriter and her bicycle, and it is often remembered for its brisk humor and its portrait of female independence in the late Victorian period.
Because the pseudonym was created for this work, there is very little personal history attached to Olive Pratt Rayner as a distinct figure. In practice, readers usually encounter the name as part of Grant Allen’s larger body of work and his interest in modern social ideas, especially the changing roles of women in everyday life.