Behn

Behn, Aphra, writer of plays and novels, was born in 1640 in Wye, Kent, her maiden name being Johnson. While still a child she went to Surinam, where she became acquainted with Oroonoko, a slave, whom she introduced subsequently as the subject of one of her novels. On returning to England, about 1658, she married a London merchant, being left a widow in less than ten years. She became a favourite with Charles II., and he sent her on a mission to Antwerp, She then became a figure in the gay society of the time, and was a prolific author of plays, poems, and novels, which, though much praised at the time, are chiefly remarkable for their impurity. She died in 1689, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.