Agnes Henningsen (1868–1962)

Agnes Henningsen, née Andersen, was born on an estate in Skovsbo, Denmark, where her father was a tenant farmer. After her parents died when she was young, she and her two sisters were sent to a girls' boarding school in Antvorskov. In about 1887, she married Mads Henningsen, a teacher, with whom she lived in Copenhagen and had three children before he left to emigrate to the USA; after which they divorced. With writer Carl Ewald, she had a son who later became a writer, Poul Henningsen.The siblings grew up together in their mother's modern home, which was often visited by her literary and artistic friends. To support her family, Agnes ran a hairdressing salon, but it failed to turn a profit. With the help of her friend and role model, journalist Herman Bangs, she published some short stories in the newspaper København under the pen name Helga Maynert. In 1899, she published her first novel, Glansbilledet (Scrap Picture), followed by Strømmen (The Current). She gained literary fame with her 1901 novel Polens Døtre (Poland's Daughters). In 1919, she remarried to writer Simon Koch, but had extramarital relationships, refusing to conform to society's double standard for the behavior of women. Her most successful works were her eight volumes of memoirs (Erindringer), published from 1941 to 1955. Henningsen was considered immoral by many critics in her own time because of her fight for women's rights and her views on sexual liberation, but eventually received positive interest in her work from the younger generation. When the Danish Academy was founded in 1960, she was named one of its two female members, the other being Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen).