Hulda Garborg (1862–1934)

Hulda Garborg was born Karen Hulda Bergersen on a farm in Stange, Norway. The family moved to Kristiania – renamed Oslo – when Hulda was 12. From age 17, she began working in a store to help support the family. In 1887, she married Arne Garborg, a writer, and the couple moved to Tynset in Østerdalen, eastern Norway, where they lived for nine years in a small rural cabin on a farm near Lake Savalen. There she gave birth to a son. During this time, the Garborgs visited Oslo and other places in Norway, and lived for short periods in Berlin and Paris. In 1897, they moved to Hvalstad, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Hulda published her first novel, Et frit forhold, anonymously in 1892, and went on to author numerous other novels, plays, songs, and poems over more than three decades. In 1912, she co-founded Det Norske Teatret (Norwegian Theatre). She worked to preserve Norwegian culture and heritage, including bunad, the traditional rural clothes and folk costumes; theatre and folk dance; and cooking. She was also an advocate for women's rights.

She published articles in the Nynorsk newspaper Den 17de Mai, which were later collected into the book Heimestell (1899). She participated in contemporary debates and politics as a public speaker, politician, and writer. The books Kvinden skabt af Manden (Woman Created by Man, 1904) and Fru Evas Dagbog (1905) were her contribution to the debate on women's rights.

After her husband's death, she edited his diaries for publication; selections from her own diaries were published posthumously in 1962 as Dagbok, 1903–1914. She was appointed to the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1932.