(b. September 5, 1728; d. October 19, 1814) Dramatist, Historian, and Poet.

Mercy Otis Warren was the first American woman to publish poems, plays, and nonfiction about politics and war, subjects that had traditionally been considered the exclusive province of men. During the crisis leading up to the American Revolution, her satirical pieces attacked the tyrannical injustice of British government in the colonies. After the war, her scathing critique of the proposed U.S. Constitution and a three-volume history of the Revolution secured her reputation as an astute political commentator. Yet throughout her career, questions about the appropriateness of a woman writing about quintessentially masculine affairs continued to haunt her.

Born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to a politically active family, Warren received a more sophisticated education than most girls of her day. Tutored along with her brother, James Otis, she not only learned to read and write, but became...