Charlotte Brontë

British · b. 1816

Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre as 'Currer Bell' from a Yorkshire parsonage, hiding her sex from reviewers who called the book coarse once they guessed it. The eldest surviving Brontë sister buried all five siblings — including Emily and Anne within a year — and kept writing; she died at 38, having given the novel its first fully independent heroine.