According to a recent study, books written by women are priced – on average – at less than half the price of those written by men. It was a startling, but sadly unsurprising, reminder of how women’s creative contributions tend to be undervalued.

This discrepancy in monetary recognition inspired AN Devers to start The Second Shelf: a book-dealing business focused on rare books, first editions and manuscripts written by and about women.

Writing in The Guardian, Denvers explains that she first had the idea for The Second Shelf after attending a book fair in New York City, where she noticed that a first edition of a book by “a living female writer who is tremendously respected” was priced at just $25. A first edition of a book by a similarly acclaimed male author, in contrast, was on sale for hundreds of dollars.

Denvers says she is determined “to find and sell exceptional work” by women “that might have been lost due to inequality and uninterest”.

“The truth is, I don’t know if The Second Shelf is a viable business yet,” she writes. “What I see is a problem to solve. Far more women must take up the charge to collect rare books and first editions by women – as should men, of course, but the evidence suggests we can’t count on them to do so.”

Read more about The Second Shelf here.

Women’s Daily Dispatch: The news you need to know on 18/5/18