Maria Friederike Cornelia "Frida" Strindberg (née Uhl; 4 April 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Austrian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

and translator, who was closely associated with many important figures in 20th-century literature.

Life and career

Uhl was the daughter of Friedrich Uhl, editor of the ''

Wiener Zeitung ''Wiener Zeitung'' () is an Austrian newspaper. First published as the ''Wiennerisches Diarium'' in 1703, it is one of the oldest newspapers in the world. Until April 2023, it was the official gazette of the government of the Republic of Austria ...

'', and Maria Uhl (née Rieschl), a Catholic. She met Swedish playwright

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...

in early 1893, when she was only 20; they soon married and she at once tried to organize a production of his work in England, and took his financial affairs in hand. They had a daughter, Kerstin. Strindberg did not approve of the active role Frida was taking in his business affairs, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1895. German playwright

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...

was the father of Frida's second child

Friedrich Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

. She sent her children to be cared for by her parents. With a later lover, the poet

Hanns Heinz Ewers Hanns Heinz Ewers (3 November 1871 – 12 June 1943) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his tril ...

, she started the first German cabaret in 1900. She was closely involved with several writers of the

Young Vienna Young Vienna (''Jung-Wien''), also referred to as Young Austria, was a society of ''fin de siècle'' writers who met in Vienna's Café Griensteidl and other nearby coffeehouses in the late nineteenth century. The group turned away from the preva ...

movement, such as the poet

Peter Altenberg Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859 – 8 January 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, Austria. He played a key role in the genesis of early modernism in the city. Biography He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859 in Vienna into a Jews, J ...

for whom she organized a subscription, and the journalist Karl Kraus, whom she convinced to sponsor a reading of Wedekind's ''

Pandora's Box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod related that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing curses ...

.'' Her affair with the writer

Werner von Oesteren Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

was particularly stormy. She threatened him on two separate occasions with a revolver. Details of this relationship were made public in 1905 when she sued him for harassing a detective she had hired to follow him. In 1908 she fired a gun in a Viennese hotel on New Year's Day. It is unclear whether this was a suicide attempt; she had recently written a number of suicide notes. The event caused a great scandal as

Karl, 5th Prince Fugger von Babenhausen Karl Georg Ferdinand Jakob Maria, 5th Prince Fugger of Babenhausen (15 January 1861 – 5 July 1925) was an Austrian landowner and officer. After serving in various Hussar regiments, he commanded the 3rd Hussar Regiment as Colonel during World Wa ...

was a guest at the party. She fled to London. On 26 June 1912, she opened

The Cave of the Golden Calf The Cave of the Golden Calf was a night club in London. In existence for only two years immediately before the First World War, it epitomised decadence, and still inspires cultural events. Its name is a reference to the Golden Calf of the Biblica ...

, a nightclub decorated by

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

Charles Ginner Charles Isaac Ginner (4 March 1878 – 6 January 1952) was a British painter of landscape and urban subjects. Born in the south of France at Cannes, of British parents, in 1910 he settled in London, where he was an associate of Spencer Gore ...

, and

Spencer Gore Spencer may refer to: People *Spencer (surname) **Spencer family, British aristocratic family ** List of people with surname Spencer * Spencer (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Spencer, New ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

complimented her on her acumen. Other frequent guests of the establishment included

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

, and

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

. In 1914, she left for the United States, where she quickly secured a job with

Fox Film The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox. It was the corporate successor to his earlier Greater Ne ...

. In 1933–1934, Uhl published the work ''Strindberg and His Second Wife under the pseudonym Frida Strindberg,'' articulating her version of the marriage between her and August Strindberg. The translation into Swedish was by Karin Boye, with whom Uhl collaborated in Berlin. In 1937, she published the memoir ''

Marriage with Genius Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

''. She spent her last years in her family's summer residence at Mondsee and died there at the age of 71 in 1943.

References

Eivor Martinus Eivor, Eivør or Øyvor is a female given name in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, 4,922 people bear the name. The average age is 78. The name perhaps originated from either the Proto-Norse word ''auja'', which is thought to mean "good luck", o ...

, ''Strindberg and Love'' Amber Lane Press, 2001. * Monica Strauss, ''Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida Strindberg,'' Harcourt, New York, 2000

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uhl, Frida 1872 births 1943 deaths Austrian women writers Young Vienna Strindberg family Writers from Austria-Hungary