Marika Stiernstedt

Maria Sofia Alexandra "Marika" Stiernstedt (12 January 1875 – 25 October 1954) was a Swedish author and artist.

Biography

Stiernstedt was born a Catholic and remained one for life. She was a socialist despite her background; she came from a baroque aristocratic environment, her father Leonard Wilhelm Stiernstedt was a free lord and her mother Marie Pauline Victoria Ciechanowiecka was a Polish Countess. In her work she paid tribute to middle-class women, who could have a decent education and do something. Her marriage to the author Ludvig Nordström was of great interest to her contemporaries and is depicted in the book Kring ett äktenskap (About a marriage).

Her first works, the short story "Stackars Josef" (Poor Josef) in 1892 and the first novel, Sven Vingedal, were published under the pseudonym Mark Stern. Her father contributed to the release of the latter.

Stiernstedt's most famous books are considered to be the novels Fröken Liwin (Miss Liwin), which describes the contradictions between mother and daughter and the problems of aging alone, and Spegling i en skärva (Mirroring in a shard), a selection of short stories Bland människor (Among people), and the youth book Ullabella, the portrait book Mest sanning (Mostly truth) and the memoir volumes Mitt och de mina and Adjö min gröna ungdom (Goodbye my green youth). She also made herself known through the publication of various travelogues and newspaper articles

Marika Stiernstedt, together with Hjalmar Branting, was among the first to become aware of and report on the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. In the book Armeniernas fruktansvärda läge (The terrible situation for the Armenians) (1917) she wrote about the genocide.