Sei Shōnagon (966–1025)

This woman is known only by her sobriquet at court. She was in the service of an empress, about whom she writes with adulation, but, apart from what she records in The Pillow Book (c.975), which is autobiographical, little is known of her life. Her writing does, however, reveal an educated, sensitive, and vivacious woman who held herself in high esteem and was popular at court. Written with wit, The Pillow Book includes lists of things that the author liked or disliked, spontaneous observations, anecdotes of court life, and miscellaneous tales, some of her own invention. It is a classic of the zuihztsu or miscellany genre. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon… (lisätietoja)