'Sloppy': Baileys under fire over Reclaim Her Name books for Women’s prize

Prize sponsor apologises for putting Frederick Douglass on cover of Martin R Delany biography, while expert in Edith Maude Eaton says author may have never written story at all

Women’s prize sponsor Baileys has apologised for putting an illustration of the wrong black abolitionist on the cover of a book in a series republishing female authors who wrote under male pseudonyms – a project that has received mixed reactions since it launched earlier this week.

The Reclaim Her Name campaign, announced on Wednesday, sees 25 titles being republished as free ebooks to celebrate 25 years of the Women’s prize for fiction, with print editions donated to selected libraries around the UK. More than 3,000 pseudonymous writers were considered by a team of researchers commissioned by Baileys. Selected authors included Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the pen name George Eliot, and Fatemeh Farahani, who published poems in 19th-century Iran as Shahein Farahani.

Related: ‘George Eliot’ joins 24 female authors making debuts under their real names

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