Born: 22 August 1844, Russia
Died: 4 November 1919
Country most active: Russia
Also known as: Sophia Andreyevna Behrs, Софья Андреевна Толстая, Sonya Tolstoy
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
War and Peace is known for its length, at 587,287 words. Sophia Tolstaya copied and edited it seven times by hand. She did this at night by candlelight after her children—she bore thirteen—went to bed, using a magnifying glass to decipher her husband’s notes. Their marriage was infamously miserable, and Tolstoy repaid her by abandoning her in 1910, selling most of their property so he could wander the countryside and promptly dying 10 days later.