Little is known about the early life of Aphra Behn, a legendary English Restoration writer, playwright, and public figure, and the first recorded English woman to make a living from writing. It's likely that she was born in Kent in 1640, the daughter of Elizabeth Denham Johnson and Bartholomew Johnson, a bartender. Although the family was not upper-class, Behn was educated; she lived as a child through the English Civil War, and when Behn was an adolescent the monarchy was restored in England, making her one of the Restoration playwrights. Behn lived in Suriname when her father worked at a military outpost there; her father may not have survived the journey, but the experience provided...
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