Aphra Behn was a pioneering English playwright, poet, translator, and prose writer of the Restoration era. Rising from obscurity, she gained the attention of King Charles II, who employed her as a political spy in Antwerp. Following her return to London and a likely brief period in a debtors' prison, she turned to writing for the theatre to earn a living, becoming one of the first English women to establish a successful career as a professional writer.
Writing under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea, Behn became an active member of a literary circle that included prominent poets and libertines like John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Her early career was marked by successful theatrical productions, most notably her play The Rover. However, during the political turbulence of the Exclusion Crisis, her controversial prologues and epilogues brought her legal difficulties. This prompted her to shift her focus from the stage toward translations and prose fiction, including her famous work Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave, which is often celebrated as an early English novel.
A dedicated supporter of the Stuart monarchy, Behn remained loyal to her political convictions even after the Glorious Revolution, famously declining an invitation to write a welcoming poem for King William III. She died shortly thereafter in 1689 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Behn's legacy as a trailblazer for female authors was famously celebrated by Virginia Woolf, who noted that Behn earned women the right to speak their minds.
