Unfortunately, a quick look into history would reveal that a woman made a revolutionary discovery or created an innovative work of art or literature instead of the man typically credited for it. For too long, it was too easy for men to be able to push over a woman, steal her words, mind, or creations, and be rewarded for it. In this article, we will glimpse at the lives and histories of the women whose work was stolen from a man and return to them the credit they deserve.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Characteristically enigmatic, Zelda Fitzgerald had her works plagiarized by her own husband, American literary great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda publicly called out her husband in The New York Tribune when, upon reading his novel The Beautiful and Damned, she realized that parts of the book were ripped from her diary. Zelda began receiving as much public attention as her husband, causing a rift in their relationship. It is suggested that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s continuous ill treatment and hatred towards his wife were the catalyst that caused her mental and physical health to deteriorate drastically throughout the years.
Zelda held onto her literary flair while in the hospital and delivered the manuscript for Save Me the Waltz to her husband’s editor. Her husband detested this, as he had planned to use the same autobiographical information for his book, Tender Is the Night. He wrote angry letters and forced Zelda to remove sections of material from her book so that he could use them for himself. After Save Me the Waltz was released, Scott wrote his own scathing review, impeding the success of Zelda’s only published novel.
Margaret Keane
Artist Margaret Keane, known for her painted portraits of people with huge eyes, also had the credit for her work stolen by her husband. Walter Keane aided his wife in selling her paintings but secretly claimed them as his original work. Finally, in the 1970s, Margaret revealed that she was the original artist of the big-eyed paintings. Her husband tried to paint her as a liar, but Margaret sued for defamation and won. By painting in front of the jurors in court, Margaret was supposed to be compensated $4 million. However, Walter had spent all the money he earned on her paintings and could not provide the award to her.
Margarete Steffin
Renowned playwright Bertolt Brecht manipulated Margarete Stefffin to author eight of his works. Bertolt Brecht is known for transforming theater with his unorthodox productions, yet he owes his career to a slew of silenced women. Brecht seduced and promised many women, like Margarete Steffin, that he would marry them in exchange for a play he could claim as his own. Steffin’s handwriting penned the found manuscripts of Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, and Life of Galileo and built the foundations of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Moreover, when Steffin died of tuberculosis, Bertolt Brecht fought and won Steffin’s inheritance from her family.
Florence Deeks
Florence Deeks, a Canadian writer and teacher, stands behind the works of the famous H.G. Wells. The Outline of History by H.G. Wells lifted unacknowledged information from Deek’s Web of the World’s Romance. Both novels’ exact inaccuracies in historical details serve as evidence of plagiarism by H.G. Wells from Florence Deeks. Deeks unsuccessfully sued Wells for copyright infringement, publicly shamed and embarrassed by the judge in the process.
We may still find ourselves attributing the successes of the men mentioned above to their own semblances of talent. Now, knowing about the women who were silenced during their lifetime so that a man could further this career and gain, it is our job to celebrate them and their accomplishments in the present day and give them the recognition they deserve. We must uplift women, past and present, to transform the future into one in which equal successes are rightly attributed to women.
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