This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, an annual event in the British literary world. As a commemoration, the sponsor, Baileys, has created a campaign called Reclaim Her Name and published 25 classic books written by female writers with their real names instead of the masculine ones they used in the first edition.
The Women's Prize for Fiction,previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996-2006 and 2009-12), is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. The prize was originally sponsored by Orange, a telecommunications company. In May 2012, it was announced Orange would be ending its corporate sponsorship of the prize. There was no corporate sponsor for 2013; sponsorship was by "private benefactors", led by Cherie Blair and writers Joanna Trollope and Elizabeth Buchan. Beginning in 2014, the prize was sponsored by the liquor brand Baileys Irish Cream.
From the 19th century to the 20th, women’s status in the literary world was still suppressed by men, which led to many female writers writing under male pseudonyms. In the Victorian era, George Eliot published many classic works, but it was a masculine pseudonym whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. George Lewes, Mr. Evans's husband, said bluntly that the move was to avoid the influence of “prejudice in women's works”.
This time, Baileys will republish 25 classic books under the real names of female writers in the project Reclaim Her Name, including Evans Middlemarch, which was voted the best novel in Britain and published in 1871.
What makes the Reclaim Her Name series distinguished is that presented in the most prominent position on the covers is the original name of those female writers, and the titles of books are placed in a smaller font at the bottom of the covers.
Baileys said the aim was to give female writers the visibility and prestige they deserve and to encourage discussion in the literary world about the challenges faced by women and the use of pseudonyms. Kate Mosse, founder of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, was happy with the plan, saying, “it's to look back on the path that women have paved for us.”
Baileys Reclaim Her Name：
