75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Women's National Book Association, 75 Books

A different perspective on literature written by women. These works were selected by members of the Women's National Book Association in observance of their 75th anniversary in 1992. The list honours women "whose words have changed the world" and who "have brought insight, awe, and pleasure to countless readers over the years".

This list was originally published in 1992 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2249 Twenty Years at Hull-House Jane Addams 1910 American English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
2561 The Human Condition Hannah Arendt 1958 German English
13 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
14788 Patterns of Culture Ruth Benedict 1934 American English
4676 Our Bodies, Ourselves Unknown 1970 American English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
2220 Against Our Will Susan Brownmiller 1975 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
3512 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
271 The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899 American English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
15910 Science And Health Mary Baker Eddy 1875 American English
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
15910 The Boston Cooking School Cook Book Fannie Farmer 1896 American English
9754 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
6613 Gorillas In The Mist Dian Fossey 1983 American English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
709 The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan 1963 American English
6493 Living My Life Emma Goldman 1931 American English
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
985 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
17152 Games Mother Never Taught You Betty Lehan Harragan 1977 American English
16800 Our Inner Conflicts Karen Horney 1945 German English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
2203 The Story of My Life Helen Keller 1903 American English
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
3091 On Death and Dying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 1969 Swiss English
17152 Diet For A Small Planet Frances Moore Lappe 1971 American English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
4451 Gift From The Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1955 American English
17152 The Cancer Journals Audre Lorde 1980 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
1490 The Garden Party And Other Stories Katherine Mansfield 1922 New Zealand English
1981 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
17152 My Life Golda Meir 1975 Israeli English
4461 Collected Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
3916 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
260 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
2577 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
14985 The World Is Not Enough Zoe Oldenbourg 1966 French French
9241 Silences Tillie Olsen 1978 American English
2817 The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels 1979 American English
15910 My Own Story Emmeline Pankhurst 1914 British English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
3852 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
15910 The Autobiography Of Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger 1938 American English
900 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
14232 Journal Of A Solitude May Sarton 1973 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
17152 Illness As Metaphor Susan Sontag 1978 American English
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
3249 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
299 Kristin Lavransdatter Sigrid Undset 1920 Norwegian Norwegian
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
2800 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
17152 The Collected Works Of Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley 1988 American English
774 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 1792 British English
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English