Known as the “Queen of our Literature,” Kate Roberts was a 20th-century Welsh author and also the first woman to be recognized as a major writer of Welsh literature. She wrote in Welsh and was a prominent nationalist in her time.
Born in a northern Welsh town, she went to university (in a time when women didn’t) and trained as a teacher. Most of her short stories and novels focus on what she knew–the poverty of the people living and working in the quarries.
She married for the first time at the age of 36, which is notable when most women were being married at significantly younger ages–16, 17, 18, etc. Roberts didn’t let marriage become a controlling in her life; instead, with the help of her husband, they bought a printing press, and she became the publisher of a Welsh weekly newspaper which she also wrote for. Her husband also being a staunch nationalist, her political activism also only increased during her marriage.
In a time when women did little more than follow the status quo–come of age, marry, have children, keep house, and die, Roberts did so, so much more, and yet is barely remembered outside of Wales.