Anna Maria Lenngren

Anna Maria Lenngren (* June 18, 1754 in Uppsala as Anna Maria Malmstedt; † March 8, 1817 in Stockholm) is one of the most important writers of the Swedish literature of the late 18th century, in the time of the Enlightenment.

Anna Maria Lenngren was a daughter of the university teacher Magnus B. Malmstedt and got through her ​​father an unusual for girls of that time classical education. She began to write early and translate. Her breakthrough came in 1775 with the satirical poem The- Conseillen and a year later she was inducted into the literary society Utile Dulci, in which the intellectual elite of that time was gathered. In the next few years, she devoted herself mainly to the translation of plays and operas. So she translated at the request of Duke Charles, 1776, the Komische Oper Lucile was the first Swedish-speaking opera for the Royal Opera House.

1780 she married Carl Petter Lenngren, an officer and employee of the then leading newspaper Stockholms items which he assumed in 1795 after the death of Johan Henrik Kellgrens. Anna Maria Lenngren became one of the most important literary staff, but published their contributions anonymous. She also had a salon that the Swedish reconnaissance became one of the most important meeting places.

Anna Maria Lenngren despised as a passionate follower of the Enlightenment, the idealistic literature and devoted himself more and more of satire and epigram. Liberty, equality and fraternity are their social ideals that they (the boys ) focus on Pojkarne 1796. In her poetry she also attacks the nobility and the upper middle class. But the male double standard, as well as gender inequality is discussed, such as Rosalie in 1794 or in Nagra ord till min kara yolk - ifall jag hade någon ( some words to my dear daughter - if I had one) in 1798.

Anna Maria Lenngren also opposed the emerging romance, whose giddiness she preferred the courage of the Enlightenment, as it wrote itself in 1809, and she in the poem Kråkan ( the Crow ) attack 1814.

Although she was not a member of Svenska academies, she participated in many of their meetings and was in fact considered a member. The Academy honored her in 1797 by the ode till fru Lenngren and after her death by a commemorative coin. As one of the first women in 1775 member of the Kungliga Vetenskaps -och Vitterhetssamhället i Göteborg.