Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960) was born in Alessandria as Marta Felicina Faccio. The daughter of a wealthy family, she had to leave school after primary school and trained as a self-taught writer. The depression of her mother, admitted to a psychiatric facility, marked Aleramo's adolescence, abruptly cut short by the rape she suffered at the hands of an employee of her father's, with whom she ended up marrying when she was only sixteen years old. Oppressed by the yoke of a relationship she abhorred and after a suicide attempt, Ella Aleramo left the family in 1902 and moved to Rome where she was able to develop her literary career and become involved as an activist in emerging feminist movements.

She is a fruitful and precocious author, her works include prose, poetry and journalism, an area in which she stood out as a contributor to numerous literary magazines.