Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) was an avant-garde English writer, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, an early portrayal of lesbianism in literature, which was banned upon publication, despite public outcry from well-known figures including Virginia Woolf. In later years, Hall spoke of feeling like a man trapped in a woman’s body, and became privately known to friends as John; widely dismissed as writerly eccentricity until the late twentieth century, Hall’s story now chimes with many modern transgender experiences.
