Pen name of Victorian author and Englishwoman Mary Ann Evans, who gave us politically rich novels like Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, wrote under a male name to get the professional respect she deserved, and drove the point home by writing the memorably titled essay “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists.” Lived in sin for many years with married philosopher George Henry Lewes and then legally married a man twenty years her junior seven months before she died. Boss.