Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, Behn declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III. She died shortly after.

14 December 1640

Born on the same birth day (14 December): Archie Kao • Craig Biggio • David R. Harris (geographer) • Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon • Justin Furstenfeld • Morihei Ueshiba • Offset (rapper) • Shedrack Kibet Korir • Tom Smith (rugby union, born 1985) • Tommy McAvoy • Tycho Brahe

Born in the same month (December 1640): Claude Fleury • Robert Plot