Helena Nyblom
1843-1926.
Author.
Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and popular fairy tale poets at the turn of the century.
She was born in Copenhagen in 1843, the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. Her father was a painter and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and her mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterized by intellectuality and aesthetics.
She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala, where their home soon became a gathering place for artistically minded people from all over the Nordic region.
Nyblom published a number of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough came in the late 1890s with her fairy tales.
Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noticed and criticized in the media.
Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer for magazines such as Nordisk tidskrift, Ny svensk tidskrift, Ord och bild and Idun.
In 1922, the autobiographical work Mina levnadsminnen was published.
John Bauer's illustration from 1913, for Helena Nyblom's "The changelings" in "Among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia commons.
Vershuset on Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864 onwards. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia commons.
Burial site: 0112-0574
Image description: Helena Nyblom, Stockholm ca 1870- ca 1880. Waldemar Dahllöf / UUBThe image is cropped]
Click here for an uncropped image
