author
Helvi Herlevi
1898–1927
A Finnish playwright whose life was brief but creative, she wrote historical and popular dramas in the early decades of the 20th century. Her surviving work offers a glimpse of a young writer drawn to the stage and to Finland’s past.
1 Audiobook
Kuningasverta Kaksinäytöksinen kuvaus
by Helvi Herlevi
About the author
Born in Mäntsälä on September 14, 1898, Helvi Johanna Elisabet Herlevi was a Finnish playwright. Finnish biographical sources identify her as a dramatist, and contemporary library records preserve her work from the 1910s and 1920s.
She is especially associated with the historical play Kuningasverta, published in 1920 and later preserved by Project Gutenberg. Catalog records also show other dramatic works connected with her name, including Huutokauppa, suggesting a short but active writing career centered on the theater.
After 1920 she was known as Helvi Gyllenberg. She was married to Rafael Gyllenberg, and their son was Helge Gyllenberg. Her life ended very early in Kulosaari on December 31, 1927, when she was only 29.