author
Laura Kieler
1849–1932
Known today as the real-life inspiration for Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, this Norwegian-Danish writer led a life that was far richer than that famous connection suggests. She wrote novels, journalism, and sharp commentary on women’s lives, morality, and society in Scandinavia.
3 Audiobooks
André Kautokeinolainen: Kertomus perimmästä Pohjolasta
by Laura Kieler
Karen Jürgens Egtvedistä : Kertomus Eteläjyllannista
by Laura Kieler
About the author
Born in Tromsø on January 9, 1849, Laura Kieler became a Norwegian-Danish novelist, journalist, and public speaker. As a young writer she admired Henrik Ibsen and entered into correspondence with him; she later became closely associated with A Doll’s House when episodes from her own marriage and financial troubles were used as part of the background for Nora Helmer.
That connection has often overshadowed her own work. Kieler wrote fiction, took part in the moral and women’s debates of the 1880s, and published writing shaped by her interest in women’s status, family life, and social expectations. Reference works also note her engagement with the women’s movement and her concern for Southern Jutland’s cause.
She died in Ålsgårde, Denmark, on April 23, 1932. Today she is remembered both for the dramatic story that linked her to Ibsen and, increasingly, as a writer in her own right whose life and work reveal the pressures placed on ambitious women in the nineteenth century.