75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World

This is one of the 743 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
2239 Twenty Years at Hull-House Jane Addams 1910 American English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
290 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
2558 The Human Condition Hannah Arendt 1958 German English
12 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813 British English
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
14701 Patterns of Culture Ruth Benedict 1934 American English
4667 Our Bodies, Ourselves Unknown 1970 American English
28 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
2208 Against Our Will Susan Brownmiller 1975 American English
283 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
3509 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
270 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
15786 Science And Health Mary Baker Eddy 1875 American English
30 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
15786 The Boston Cooking School Cook Book Fannie Farmer 1896 American English
9735 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
6599 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
6482 Living My Life Emma Goldman 1931 American English
1258 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
754 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
984 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
17008 Games Mother Never Taught You Betty Lehan Harragan 1977 American English
16650 Our Inner Conflicts Karen Horney 1945 German English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
2191 The Story of My Life Helen Keller 1903 American English
1034 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
3084 On Death and Dying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 1969 Swiss English
17008 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
4446 Gift From The Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1955 American English
17008 The Cancer Journals Audre Lorde 1980 American English
117 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
1489 The Garden Party And Other Stories Katherine Mansfield 1922 New Zealand English
1976 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
904 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
17008 My Life Golda Meir 1975 Israeli English
4456 Collected Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
3910 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
266 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
2574 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
349 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
14901 The World Is Not Enough Zoe Oldenbourg 1966 French French
9222 Silences Tillie Olsen 1978 American English
2811 The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels 1979 American English
15786 My Own Story Emmeline Pankhurst 1914 British English
102 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
2307 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
3846 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
15786 The Autobiography Of Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger 1938 American English
897 The Poems of Sappho Sappho -569 Greek Ancient greek
14165 Journal Of A Solitude May Sarton 1973 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
17008 Illness As Metaphor Susan Sontag 1978 American English
401 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
3243 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
297 Kristin Lavransdatter Sigrid Undset 1920 Norwegian Norwegian
159 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
2795 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
17008 The Collected Works Of Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley 1988 American English
773 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 1792 British English
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English