Fiction:
* Agatha Christie: Continued her reign as the "Queen of Crime" with classics like "The Mousetrap" (1952) and "Murder on the Orient Express" (1957).
* Daphne du Maurier: Known for gothic and suspenseful works like "Rebecca" (1938) and "My Cousin Rachel" (1951).
* Doris Lessing: Emerged as a powerful voice in literary fiction with her first novel, "The Grass is Singing" (1950), later writing "The Golden Notebook" (1962).
* Evelyn Waugh: Published "The Loved One" (1948) and "Brideshead Revisited" (1951) in the 1950s.
* Flannery O'Connor: Published her short story collection "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1955), establishing her dark humor and Southern Gothic style.
* Graham Greene: Published "The End of the Affair" (1951) and "The Quiet American" (1955).
* Harper Lee: Wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960).
* Jeannette Winterson: Though born in 1959, her debut novel, "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (1985), was partly influenced by the 1950s and explored themes of sexual identity and religious conflict.
* Mary McCarthy: Published "The Groves of Academe" (1952) and "The Group" (1963), exploring social commentary and gender roles.
* Muriel Spark: Published "The Comforters" (1957), a landmark novel with a surrealist sensibility.
* Simone de Beauvoir: Published "The Second Sex" (1949), a groundbreaking work on feminist theory.
* Sylvia Plath: Published "The Bell Jar" (1963), a semi-autobiographical novel exploring mental illness and the pressures of society.
* Truman Capote: Published "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1958) and "Other Voices, Other Rooms" (1948).
Non-Fiction:
* Betty Friedan: Her book "The Feminine Mystique" (1963) became a foundational text of second-wave feminism.
* Rachel Carson: Published "Silent Spring" (1962), a landmark work on environmentalism that brought attention to the dangers of pesticides.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and it includes authors who were already established and those who emerged during this decade. Many other talented women were writing during this period, and their contributions deserve to be recognized.
To find more female authors published in the 1950s, you can explore:
* Bibliographies: Check university library collections, online databases like WorldCat, or specific author bibliographies.
* Literary Journals: Research the contents of prominent literary magazines of the era.
* Online Databases: Websites like Project MUSE and JSTOR can provide access to scholarly articles and publications from the 1950s.
* Bookstores and Libraries: Check for used and rare books sections for older publications.
Happy reading!