When you think of famous authors in the last decade, it may be surprising that many of them are women. Gone are the days of predominantly male writers, and female authors are beginning to take the world by storm. JK Rowling. Stephanie Meyer. Suzanne Collins. The list goes on and on.
But how much do you really know about history’s most famous female authors, and what is the one thing they all have in common? Below are three of America’s best. Let’s see if you really know your stuff.

Mystery Woman #1:
This woman was short and comely and received what was considered a “man’s education.” She gave birth to seven children, including twin girls. When Congress passed a law that she disagreed with, she felt the time had come for her to make her opinion known. She wrote, “I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.” The result was a book with an initial print run of 5000 copies. That estimate turned out to be grossly inadequate, as she sold almost 300,000 in the first year. 300 babies were named after one of her characters that year in Boston alone. Her book ignited a political fire that is said to have started the Civil War. She eventually met President Abraham Lincoln, who (according to legend) said, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

Mystery Woman #2:
This writer wanted to be a nun when she grew up. Instead, she became the fourth best-selling author of all time, with 800 million copies sold. (That’s almost twice JK Rowling’s record.) Twenty-two of her books have been adapted for television. Despite her literary success, however, her marital situation has been less desirable. She has had five husbands and raised seven children. Readers will notice the relationship and family-oriented themes of her novels, and some note that her female protagonists have become increasingly independent as the author matured.

Mystery Woman #3:
This Irish-American writer began writing at age seven. A few years later, during the Great Depression, she came home from Mass to see that her father had died in his sleep. That ignited years of financial difficulty for her family. Her brother joined the military to help with bills and died of spinal meningitis six months later. After a year of working as a stewardess for Pan Am, she got married and had her first baby nine months later. Just before the fourth child was born, a publisher finally accepted her first short story. That began an interesting career that included writing for radio talk shows and starring in a laundry detergent commercial that aired during the I Love Lucy show. Her husband died of a heart attack, and when her mother-in-law discovered his body, she collapsed and passed away as well. Their first Christmas without their father, this mother of five couldn’t afford presents, so she gave her kids personalized poetry outlining what she wished she could buy them. She eventually began writing suspense novels. To date she has written twenty-four of them, each of which has become a national best-seller.

Leave a comment and see if you know who these ladies are! Tomorrow, I’ll give you clues to two more women, along with all the answers.

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