Alfhilda Theodora Adelheid Mechlenburg (1830–1907),

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Ivan Ring, was a Danish novelist and short story writer. Brought up by a mother deeply interested in literature, like her younger sisters

Fanny Suenssen Fanny Margrethe Kirstine Suenssen (1832–1918) was a Danish writer. Brought up by a mother interested in literature, like her sisters Alfhilda Mechlenburg and Teckla Juel, she contributed articles to women's magazines and published novels and ...

and Teckla Juel she devoted her life to writing. After first contributing short stories to journals, she published her acclaimed ' (Two Stories) in 1872. She went on to publish a series of novels and short stories until 1893, gaining wide popularity both in Denmark and Sweden.

Biography

Born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 10 February 1930, Alfhilda Theodora Adelheid Suenssen was the eldest daughter of Captain Johan Fedder Carsten Suenssen (1795–1840) and his wife Margaret . She was brought up by a mother deeply interested in literature with two younger sisters who also became writers. In 1864, she married Carl Adolph Rothe Mechlenburg, a Norwegian naval captain, who died in 1868. Alhilda Suenssen spent her childhood in the south of

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

where her father was a sea captain in Tønning. When he died in 1840, the family moved to Copenhagen where she grew up in a happy home. As the eldest daughter, she followed her mother's interest in patriotism and literature. When she was 16, she went to visit relatives in Norway but remained there for an extended period and married Captain Mechlenburg in 1864. Their only daughter died as an infant in 1867 and her husband passed away a year later. As a result, Alhilda Mechlenburg returned to Denmark to live with her mother. In the 1870s, she contributed rather old-fashioned romantic short stories to various journals, including ' and '. In 1878, she published ' followed by ' in 1878. Gaining popularity, she went on to publish a series of novels and short stories, completing a total of ten works in the 1880s and early 1890s. Alfhilda Mechlenburg died in Copenhagen on 10 February 1907.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mechlenburg, Alfhilda 1830 births 1907 deaths Writers from Copenhagen 19th-century Danish novelists Danish women novelists Danish short story writers Danish women short story writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers