Pak Juk-seo is one of representative women poets of the later times of the Joseon Dynasty. She was born and raised in Wonju. Her pen name was Juk-seo and Ban-a-dang. Juk-seo was the name of her personal library established at her home and Ban-a-dang meant ‘half-deaf’.

She was born as the daughter of a concubine whose husband was a famous scholar. Pak Juk-seo was later wedded to the minister of a local county, as a concubine.

The records imply that she is believed to have been born in 1817 and have died in 1851. She had no children. She showed her outstanding intelligence from her early age. Especially, her memory skill and ability were unparalleled. She learned by heart all contents of books that her father read and told all about what she read, which surprised everyone.

At the age of about 10 years old or so, she showed remarkable gift of literature prodigy. The anthology of poems(‘Book of Poetry of Bamboos in the West’) that she wrote at the age of 10 includes poems and verses with five words(Chinese characters) to each line. This is the evidence of her brilliance in literature shown at her early age.

Her poetry and prose are rooted in sentiments of women and feature how enormously a woman misses her beloved one and describes how deep a woman’s han(deep sorrow very specific to Koreans) is.

She was personally very close to and maintained continual, familiar relationship with Kim Guem-won, who was also from Wonju like Park Juk-seo. Their social status was just the same as the daughter of a concubine. Besides, their interest in and talent for the literature brought them together and their relationship lasted for a long time.

Kim Guem-won, in the foreword of her poetry book, ‘Book of Poetry of Bamboos in the West’, is quoted as saying, “If I and Park Juk-seo were born to be a man, we must have been brothers of the same mother or friends of the same or similar dreams or values”.

Pak Juk-seo joined all female member poetry association that was established by Kim Guem-won, ‘Tower for Poems Surrounded by Three Lakes’. Pak Juk-seo exchanged a lot with other women writers such as Kim Un-cho, Gyeong-san(pen name, meaning ‘Mountain of Marbles’), and Gyeong-chun(pen name, meaning ‘Spring of Marbles’) for her lifetime because their social status was almost the same and they were all interested in poetry.