Barbra Ring (1870–1955)

Barbra Ring was born in Drammen, Norway to Ole Ring and his wife Thora Augusta Ravn. She was the great-granddaughter of Hanna Winsnes, Norway's first female novelist. Her only formal education was at a middle school in the capital of Kristiania (now Oslo). In 1890, Barbra married Thorvald Kirsebom, with whom she had a daughter before the couple divorced in 1902. In 1917, she remarried to Gen. Ragnar Rosenquist. Barbra made her literary debut in 1904 with the children's novel Babbens dagbog, a major success. Her bestselling books about the character of Peik, created in 1909, brought her great popularity and are now considered classics. She also wrote plays for children that were performed at the National Theater. Her fiction for adults, beginning with the novel Jomfruen (1914), also was successful. Barbra also wrote literary criticism, book and theater reviews for newspapers, and three volumes of memoirs. She collected and published family letters from her great-grandmother Hanna Winsnes, and also wrote her biography. Barbra Ring was an early member of the Norwegian Writers' Association, which she served as a board member from 1914 to 1921, and was for many years an active member of Norsk PEN. Her daughter Gerda Ring became an actress who performed in several productions of Barbra's plays.