Barbro Alving (12 January 1909 – 22 January 1987) was a
Swedish journalist and writer, a
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, often using the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
Bang. She wrote for, among others, the
Swedish newspaper ''
Dagens Nyheter
(, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record
A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...
'' and the magazines ''
Idun'' and ''
Vecko-Journalen''. She reported from various scenes during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
.
Biography
Alving was born in
Uppsala
Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Loc ...
, as the youngest daughter of the author and columnist
Fanny Alving and
Hjalmar Alving, who was a lecturer in
Scandinavian languages
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is al ...
and
Nordic literature.
At the age of eleven she moved with her family to Stockholm, where Hjalmar Alving had been appointed headmaster at
Whitlockska samskolan. Alving was enrolled at Whitlockska, and graduated in 1928.
Alving never married, but she had a daughter, Maud Fanny Alving, with illustrator and artist
Birger Lundquist in 1938. Maud, better known as
Ruffa Alving-Olin, was also a journalist, who collected and published letters, notes and other materials after Barbro Alving's death.
Alving formed a household with
Anna Laura Sjöcrona
Anna may refer to:
People Surname and given name
* Anna (name)
Mononym
* Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke
* Anna of East Anglia, King (died c.654)
* Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773)
* Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th c ...
when her daughter was one year old, and the three constituted "a different kind of family", in Ruffa's words. Alving and Sjöcrona lived together for over 40 years, until Alving's death.
Career
Alving was an editorial secretary at the weekly magazine ''Idun'' from 1928 to 1931, and then a journalist at ''Dagens Nyheter'' from 1934 to 1959. At the age of 27 she reported from the
1936 Olympic Games 1936 Olympics may refer to:
*The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
*The 1936 Summer Olympics, which were held in Berlin, Germany
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