Sixty-five years ago today, on July 28, 1960 (June 5, 1960 lunar calendar), the British writer Voynich passed away. Ethel Lilian Voynich, author of the world-famous Gadfly, was born Lilian Poole in Cork, Ireland in 1864. Her father, George Poole, a mathematician, died before she was one year old. Lilian lost her father at an early age and developed a strong character from an early age. At the age of 18, she received a bequest from relatives and friends and went to Germany to study alone. She graduated from the Berlin Conservatory in 1885. In 1887, Lilian returned from her studies and met some exiled revolutionaries in London. Among them, the Russian populist writer Klavczynski (pen name Skipniak) had a deep influence on her political thought and literary creation. Through him, Lilian traveled in Russia for two years and had many contacts with the revolutionary groups in Petersburg at that time. Lilian had worked as a governess in the family of a Russian general. She used her position and her status as an alien as a cover to pass clothes and letters on behalf of patriots imprisoned in the czar's prison. Later, a Polish revolutionary who she helped, Mihai Voynich, escaped from the Siberian exile to London. He fell in love with Lilian Poole at first sight and married in 1892. After their marriage, the couple became active in the activities of Russian exiles, and Lilian Voynich served as editor of the exile's magazine, Free Russia, and published a collection of essays on "Russian Humor," translating the works of Gogol and Ya Ni Ostrovsky, among others. Lilian Voynich also met Plekhanov and was a guest at Engels' house. Among the revolutionaries Lilian Voynich met were some exiled patriots who fought in Italy's national democratic revolutionary struggle, from whom she drew literary material. In 1889, Lilian Voynich began to write a novel reflecting the Italian people's revolution. To this end, she traveled to Italy to collect historical materials from archives and libraries. Eight years later, her novel was published in London, which became the world-famous "The Gadfly". "The Gadfly" is a very moving work in art and relatively progressive in thought. The tall image of the young gadfly of bourgeois origin in the protagonist in the book has greatly inspired many young people to embark on the road of revolution. In his famous book "How Steel Is Tempered", Ni A. Ostrovsky made a high evaluation of the gadfly's bravery and extraordinary perseverance. Since then, Voynich has written a number of other novels. In 1904, she wrote the autobiographical novel "Olivia Ratam". In 1910, she wrote "Broken Friendship" based on the experiences of the Gadfly's escape. In 1945, she wrote "Take Off Your Boots" based on the experiences of the Gadfly's great-grandmother and grandmother. Although Voynich wrote such famous novels as "The Gadfly" that have a wide readership in many countries around the world, she herself was snubbed by the bourgeois literary circles in her country. She moved to the United States in her later years and died in the United States on July 28, 1960. She was 96 years old.