Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673), was an English writer, philosopher and one of the first women to publish extensively under her own name. A maid of honor to Queen Henrietta Maria, she followed the court into exile in Paris during the Civil War and married William Cavendish, later Duke of Newcastle. She wrote poetry, plays, letters, orations, a biography of her husband and works of natural philosophy that challenged the experimental science of her day, and in 1667 she became the first woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society. Her Blazing World is an early work of speculative fiction.