Bertha von Suttner

Born in Prague on June 9, 1843, Bertha von Suttner was an Austrian novelist and peace activist whose life joined literature with public action. She is best known for Lay Down Your Arms! (1889), an anti-war novel that brought her wide international attention and helped make the human cost of war vivid to ordinary readers.

Her work reached far beyond fiction. Suttner became a leading figure in the organized peace movement, speaking, writing, and arguing for arbitration instead of armed conflict. She is also remembered for her connection with Alfred Nobel and for the influence she is widely credited with having on the creation and importance of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1905, she became the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in Vienna on June 21, 1914, just days before the outbreak of World War I, which gives her lifelong warnings about militarism an especially haunting force today.