Jane Austen

Austen wrote her first drafts in a shared sitting room at Steventon rectory, one of eight children of a country clergyman, and never married despite at least one broken engagement. Her novels were published anonymously ('By a Lady') and brought modest fame but no fortune while she lived; only her brother's memorial notice, added after her death, told the public her name.

She revised for years: Pride and Prejudice began as 'First Impressions' in the 1790s and didn't reach print until 1813, after the family settled at Chawton and she found the routine to finish book after book. She died at forty-one, probably of Addison's disease, having completed six novels and left a seventh unfinished on her writing table.