author
Maria Kraftman
1812–1884
Best known as a sharp, enterprising voice in 19th-century Finland, she moved between literature and business with unusual independence for her time. Writing in Swedish, she published one of the early novels produced in Finland while also building a remarkable career as an entrepreneur.
1 Audiobook
Så slutades min lek: En tafla ur lifvet
by Maria Kraftman
About the author
Born in Oulu in 1812 and later active in Turku, Maria Kraftman was a Finnish writer and businesswoman who wrote in Swedish. Sources describe her as one of the women who expanded the literary scene in Finland in the 1840s, and her 1848 novel Så slutades min lek is commonly noted as one of the early novels published in Finland.
Kraftman's life outside literature was just as striking. She reportedly ran a restaurant on a steamboat in Oulu in the 1840s, later founded what is described as Turku's first taxi business in the 1850s, and also worked in export and trade. That mix of practical ambition and literary activity makes her stand out among 19th-century Nordic authors.
Although she seems to have been better known in her own day for business than for books, Maria Kraftman has gradually attracted renewed interest as a pioneering woman in both commerce and fiction. She died in Turku in 1884.