author
Sigrid Backman
1886–1938
A quietly distinctive Finland-Swedish novelist, she wrote about inner life, social strain, and women trying to make room for themselves in a changing world.
1 Audiobook
Vindspel
by Sigrid Backman
About the author
Born in Helsinki in 1880, Sigrid Backman was a Finland-Swedish writer whose fiction appeared mainly from the 1910s to the 1930s. Reference sources consistently describe her as a somewhat overlooked but strongly individual prose writer, and note that she published ten novels between 1913 and 1935, beginning with Vindspel.
Her books are remembered for taking up a wide range of themes, including the Finnish Civil War, Swedish-speaking working-class life in Helsinki, and questions connected to women’s roles and the women’s movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Sources also point to Ålandsjungfrun (1919) as one of her most notable works.
One note on dates: the sources I found identify her as born on December 1, 1880, in Helsinki and dead there on May 26, 1938, so the often-seen 1886 birth year does not appear to be correct.