Eva Hemmer Hansen (1913–1983)

Eva Hemmer Hansen was born in Ålborg, Denmark, the daughter of Jacob Peter Hemmer Hansen, an editor, and his wife Elna Cecile Nielsen, and grew up in Aarhus. She graduated from Marselisborg Gymnasium and then studied Danish and English at Aarhus University. After graduation in 1937, she worked as a journalist and freelance writer. She published her debut novel Helene in 1944. Among her most successful books were En lille tøs og hendes mor (A Little Girl and Her Mother, 1952), Skandale i Troja (Scandal in Troy, 1954), Jomfru Rasmussen (1956) and Grevinden fra Borgergade (The Countess of Borgergade, 1957). In her book Camelot (1966) she explored the problems faced by women in historical novels from periods of cultural upheaval. She also wrote short stories, essays, children's books and radio plays, and translated works by English authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll into Danish. Eva Hemmer Hanson was a lifelong women's rights activist and served as the president of Dansk Kvindesamfund (Danish Women’s Society) from 1968 to 1971. She was also a member of the Social Democratic Party and a local politician until she left the party in 1970 to protest the low number of women candidates put up for election. With her second husband Alf Grostøl, she founded the Grevas Publishing House in the 1970s, which published experimental Danish literature. From 1974, she was a lecturer at the School of Journalism and a popular public speaker and debater.