Dame Cecily Isabel Fairfield (known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West) was a British author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was born on December 21, 1892, and passed away on March 15, 1983.

West was a prolific writer who authored works in various genres. She reviewed books for several prestigious publications including The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, The Sunday Telegraph, and The New Republic. Additionally, she served as a correspondent for The Bookman.

Her notable works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), which explores the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), covering the Nuremberg trials; and The Meaning of Treason (originally a magazine article in 1945 and expanded into a book in 1947), which was later revised to The New Meaning of Treason (1964). Another renowned piece is her modernist World War I novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918).

Rebecca West also penned the "Aubrey Trilogy" of autobiographical novels: The Fountain Overflows (1956), This Real Night (published posthumously in 1984), and Cousin Rosamund (1985).

In 1947, Time magazine honored her as "indisputably the world's number one woman writer." She was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1949 and was further honored as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1959, both citations acknowledging her as a "writer and literary critic." The pseudonym "Rebecca West" was inspired by a character from Henrik Ibsen's play Rosmersholm.