Rebecca West is the nom de plume of Dame Cicely Isabel Fairfield (December 21, 1892 – March 15, 1983), a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer.  She was prolific and mastered several genres, writing reviews for numerous newspapers and periodicals, covering the Nuremberg trials for The New Yorker, a masterpiece on the history and culture of Yugoslavia, and novels such as The Return of the Soldier and her autobiographical “Aubrey trilogy”. In 1947 Time called her “indisputably the world's number one woman writer”.

She was born in Kerry, Ireland. Her mother was a Scotswoman and accomplished pianist; her father was an Anglo-Irish journalist who deserted the family when Cicely was eight years old. The family moved to Edinburgh, where she was schooled until age 16. She trained as an actress in London and took the name Rebecca West from the character of the rebellious heroine of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm. She became involved in the suffrage movement and wrote for the feminist weekly Freewoman and the Clarion. A criticism of H. G. Wells led to an invitation to lunch, which led to a ten-year affair that produced her son, Anthony West.  She married banker Henry Maxwell Andrews in 1937 and accumulated considerable wealth through her literary efforts. She was made CBE in 1949 and DBE in 1959.

William Shawn, editor in chief of the New Yorker, said at her death: “Rebecca West was one of the giants and will have a lasting place in English literature. No one in this century wrote more dazzling prose, or had more wit, or looked at the intricacies of human character and the ways of the world more intelligently.”