Frances Burney d'Arblay (1752–1840)

Considered “the first thoroughly professional woman of letters,” Frances “Fanny” Burney d’Arblay was the self-educated daughter of a musicologist who is perhaps best remembered today as the author of Evelina; or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World, which she published anonymously. She was also a lifelong diarist; this is her earliest extant journal, which she started writing as a teenager.