Jane Anger is known only as the writer of Jane Anger Her Protection for Women (1589). The pamphlet is a landmark in the history of English letters for it is the first extended defense of women to make a serious claim to female authorship. It brings a distinctive new voice to English writing--the voice of articulate female anger. Developing this new persona involved rhetorical innovation: Anger transformed masculine models of composition to invent a female writing style suited to her enterprise. Furthermore, she offers a perspective on Elizabethan courtship practices quite unlike any available in the amatory verse or prose romance of the time.

Whether "Jane Anger" is the writer's own name or a pseudonym remains unknown. More than one Jane (or Joan) Anger lived in England at the time, but none of them has been identified as the writer of the pamphlet. Even the female authorship of Her...