May Sinclair was the pen name of Mary Amelia St. Clair, an influential British novelist, poet, and critic who played a vital role in the development of modernist literature. Born in 1863, Sinclair published about two dozen novels alongside numerous short stories and poetry collections. Beyond her literary output, she was a committed social activist and an active member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League, once famously dressing as a rebel Jane Austen to raise funds for the women's suffrage movement.
As a literary critic, Sinclair made a lasting impact on the modernist movement. She is widely credited with introducing the term "stream of consciousness" into literary criticism, using it in an April 1918 review of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage published in The Egoist. Her critical work helped define and legitimize the narrative techniques that would characterize the era's experimental prose.
Sinclair's own fiction often explored complex psychological landscapes and feminist themes. Among her most celebrated works are Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922) and Arnold Waterlow: a Life (1924), which showcase her sharp psychological insight and formal experimentation. She passed away in 1946, leaving behind a rich legacy as both a creative writer and a pioneering theorist of modern fiction.
