Who Was the First Woman to Write a Werewolf Story in English?

 

Who was the first female to write a werewolf short story in the English language? In researching my anthology Shifters: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 I uncovered a tale by Catherine Crowe (1790-1872). She called it "A Story of a Weir-Wolf" and published it in 1846. Despite the rather boring title, its a fine lycan tale.

At first she appears to be the first woman to write a werewolf story in the English language, but then I remembered that "Hugues the Wer-Wolf: A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages" was attributed to Sutherland Menzies (1806-1883). That tale was published eight years before Crowe's story. There are some who believe Menzies was a pen-name for Mrs. Elizabeth Stone. If so, she was the first woman to pen a lycan story.

#FirstWerewolfStory #FemaleWerewolf #SutherlandMenzies #CatherineCroweWerewolf #BestWerewolfStories