Dikken Zwilgmeyer (20 September 1853 – 28 February 1913) was a Norwegian fiction writer. She is most noted for her
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
and for her "Inger Johanne" series of books.
Personal life
Barbara Hendrikke Wind Daae Zwilgmeyer was born in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
, Norway. She was one of seven children born to
Peter Gustav Zwilgmeyer (1813–1887) and Margrethe Gjørvel Daae (1825–1887). Her father was a
Stipendiary magistrate
Stipendiary magistrates were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal ...
and Member of the
Norwegian Parliament
The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...
. She and her family lived in
Risør
is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located on the Skagerrak coast in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of Ri ...
in
Nedenes county from the time she was 8 years old. Her uncle
Ludvig Daae was a politician and
Minister of the Army. Her grandfather, Heinrich Carl Zwilgmeyer (1761–1850) had immigrated to Norway from
Hanover, Germany
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest in northern Germany after Berlin, Hamburg and Breme ...
. She never married. She died at
Kongsberg
Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production and fo ...
in Buskerud and was buried at
Vår Frelsers gravlund
The Cemetery of Our Saviour () is a cemetery in Oslo, Norway, located north of Hammersborg in Gamle Aker district. It is located adjacent to the older Old Aker Cemetery and was created in 1808 as a result of the great famine and cholera epidemi ...
in
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
. .
Career

Zwilgmeyer had no formal education. She showed early talent for painting and writing, and took lessons with various painters, including
Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...
. Her first published story was "En Hverdagshistorie", printed in the magazine ''
Nyt Tidsskrift
''Nyt Tidsskrift'' is a former Norwegian language, Norwegian literary, cultural and political periodical issued from 1882 to 1887, and with a second series from 1892 to 1895. The periodical had contributions from several of the leading intellectua ...
'' in 1884. Her first story for children was "Afbrudt 17. mai", published in the magazine ''Illustreret Tidende for Børn''.
Her first children's book was ''Vi børn'' from 1890. It written under the pseudonym "Inger Johanne, 13 years old". Inger Johanne was described as the daughter of a judge in a small Norwegian town. This book became a great success, and eleven more "Inger Johanne" books followed.
[ Among these are ''Karsten og jeg'' from 1891, ''Fra vor by'' from 1892,] and ''Barndom'' from 1895. ''Anniken Præstgaren'' from 1900 is probably the book with largest audience. It is estimated that Zwilgmeyer's books were printed in 600,000 copies up to 1903. "Inger Johanne" remained a favourite for Norwegian children for generations, and Zwilgmeyer's books are regarded as a significant innovation of Norwegian children's literature around 1900.[
In 1895 she published her first book for adults, the short story collection ''Som kvinder er'', about the poor circumstances for unmarried women, and in 1896 the puberty novel ''Ungt sind''. These books were more or less met with silence from the contemporary literary critic. The collection ''Som kvinder er'' was reissued in 1953, and then received as a forgotten literary pearl from the 1890s.][ In the 1900s she wrote historical novels and stories, including the collection ''Mægler Porsvold og andre historier'' from 1902, and the novels ''Emerentze'' (1906), ''Maren Ragna'' (1907) and ''Thekla'' (1908).][
In an obituary from 1913, ]Sigrid Undset
Sigrid Undset (; 20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Danish people, Danish-born Norwegian people, Norwegian novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1928.
Born in Den ...
emphasized Zwilgmeyer's two faces, the nice children's writer and the more bitter critic of society.[
''What Happened to Inger Johanne'' was a compilation of short stories translated into English by American children's author ]Emilie Poulsson
Anne Emilie Poulsson (September 8, 1853 – March 18, 1939) was an American children's author and campaigner for early childhood education and the kindergarten movement.
Poulsson was born in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Halvo ...
. Accompanied with illustrations by Florence Liley Young, the English language version was published in Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
in 1919.
Selected works
*''Vi børn'' (We children), 1890
*''Karsten og jeg'' (Karsten and I), 1891
*''Fra vor by'' (From our city), 1892
*''Sommerferier'' (Summer holidays), 1894
*''Barndom'' (Childhood), 1895
*''Morsomme dage'' (Funny days), 1896
*''Hos onkel Max og tante Betty'' (With Uncle Max and Aunt Betty), 1897
*''Udenlands'' (Foreign), 1898
*''Fire kusiner'' (Four cousins), 1899
*''Anniken Prestgaren'' (Anniken the Prestige), 1900
*''Syvstjernen og andre historier'' (Seven Star and Other Stories), 1900
*''Frøken Lybæks pensionatskole'' (Ms. Lybæk's boarding school), 1901
*''Lille Jan Bluhme'' (Little Jan Bluhme), 1903
*''Kongsgaardgutten'' (Kongsgaardgutten), 1904
*''Maja'' (Maja), 1905
*''Hos farfar paa Løvly'' (At grandfather at Løvly), 1910
*''Vi tre i hytten'' (We were in the cabin), 1911
References
Other sources
*Harald S. Naess, editor (1993) ''A History of Norwegian Literature'' (University of Nebraska Press)
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwilgmeyer, Dikken
1853 births
1913 deaths
People from Risør
Norwegian children's writers
19th-century Norwegian novelists
20th-century Norwegian novelists
Norwegian women novelists
Norwegian women children's writers
20th-century Norwegian women writers
19th-century Norwegian women writers
19th-century Norwegian writers
Norwegian people of German descent
Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour
Writers from Trondheim