Žemaitė is the pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė, who was born to Lithuanian gentry in Samogitia, in the country’s northwest (“Žemaitė” means “Samogitian woman”). She had no formal education but was widely read, and began writing late in life. Her subjects were the serfs and peasants of the Lowlands, about whom she wrote in their own lively vernacular. She was an early feminist and a passionate advocate for the rights of the dispossessed in Lithuania, Russia and the United States, where she lived for some years before returning to her homeland at the very end of her life.