Vendela Hebbe
Encyclopedia
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, is regarded as having been the first professional female journalist in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Biography
Wendela Hebbe was the daughter of the vicar Samuel Åström and was as a child much encouraged to read and explore literature.Hebbe married the lawyer Clemens Hebbe in 1832, but he abandoned her in 1839 when he went bankrupt and fled the country, and she was left to support herself and her daughters alone. She first worked as a governess and a music-teacher in Jönköping
Jönköping
-Notable people:*Lillian Asplund, RMS Titanic survivor*John Bauer, illustrator, painter*Amy Diamond, singer*Agnetha Fältskog, ABBA*Carl Henrik Fredriksson, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Eurozine*Anders Gustafsson, kayaker, Olympian...
. Her first novel, Arabella, was published in 1841 by the director of Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...
, and she then moved to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and started to work as a journalist and reporter at that paper, a radical newspaper that was first published in 1830, only twelve years before she joined its staff. Aftonbladet is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, contributors to democratic freedom of speech in the 19th century in Sweden, a right that had been established in 1766 but was challenged during the reign of King Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...
(1818–1844). Hebbe worked as a translator and was the manager and director responsible for coverage of culture, music and literature, and she was also a social reporter. She was nicknamed "Fröken Frågvis", which means "Miss Inquisitive". She was an important member of the radical cultural elite in Stockholm during the 1840s and 1850s.
Wendela Hebbe is considered the first professional female journalist in Sweden. Although many women had published articles in Swedish papers before this, such as Catharina Ahlgren
Catharina Ahlgren
Catharina Ahlgren was a Swedish feminist writer, poet, translator, managing editor, and one of the first identifiable female journalists in Sweden. She is also known for her correspondance with Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht. Ahlgren was a leading person in the "Female literary world of the 1750-...
in the 18th century, Hebbe is considered the first full time employed female journalist and is in history called the first woman to make a living and support herself by doing so, and was, in that sense, a pioneer of her profession. In the 1860s, Sweden were to have several female reporters at least in the capital of Stockholm. This is what she is mainly remembered for today, but what has been largely forgotten is that she introduced social reportage in Sweden; being a woman, she was considered suitable for "soft questions" such as the social misery among the poor, and she gained considerable attention with her first social reportage, "Biskopens besök" (Visit from the Bishop) in 1843, a piece which contributed to the social debate that had begun around class-differences in Sweden around this time.
But the profession of a reporter was not considered suitable for a woman, and she was subjected to slander and rumourmongering; the fact that she had a relationship with the founder of Aftonbladet, Lars Johan Hierta
Lars Johan Hierta
Lars Johan Hierta was a Swedish newspaper publisher, social critic, businessman and politician. He is best known as the founder of the newspaper Aftonbladet in 1830. Hierta was a leading agitator for political and social reform in Sweden during the 19th century...
, led some to assume that she had gotten her job because of nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
. She was often caricatured in other papers, which greatly damaged her reputation and social position. However, it was impossible for Hebbe and Hierta to marry, as her husband had vanished into exile (the marriage where finally dissolved in 1864). Hierta was himself married, which made her talked about as his mistress; they did have a son together, Edvard, but he was born in secret and adopted to Germany (he later became the father of the artist Mollie Faustman). With her beauty she received much attention from the male cultural elite with whom she mingled, and this gave rise to the rumour that she was promiscuous; she was much courted, and poems where dedicated to her - complimentary ones from the radical author Carl Jonas Love Almquist, with whom she was, possibly, more than friends, and harsher ones from the poet Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér , was a Swedish writer, professor of Greek language, and bishop. He was during the 19th century regarded as the father of modern poetry in Sweden, mainly through the national romantic epos Frithjof's Saga. He has been called Sweden's first modern man...
, whom she refused. The journalist Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe
Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe
Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe , Swedish historian, early became famous both as a political and a historical writer.Crusenstolpe won considerable distinction with a series of historical-romantic tales, ; but his fame rests mainly on his works as a journalist, historian, biographer, and politician...
, who was imprisoned for his fight for the freedom of speech, was also a friend of hers.
Hebbe retired as a journalist in the 1850s and started focusing on her writing as a novelist, but she continued to be a part of the radical democratic cultural circle of Stockholm.
Her daughter, Signe Hebbe
Signe Hebbe
Signe Amanda Georgina Hebbe , was a Swedish singer , actress, and theatre pedagogue.Signe Hebbe was born in Värnamo to the journalist Vendela Hebbe. In 1848, at the age of eleven, she studied music at the Lindblad pianoschool, at the school of the Royal Swedish Opera and for Karolina Bock. In...
(1837–1925), became a famous international singer and an actress in the 1860s, and Wendela often followed her on her tours.
In 1978 the Wendela Hebbe Society was founded in Sweden and 1998 a museum was founded at Södertälje.
Works
- Arabella (novel, 1841)
- Svenska skaldestycken för ungdom (book of poems "for young people", 1845)
- Arbetkarlens hustru (The wife of a working man) (reportage, 1846)
- Brudarne (The Brides) (novel, 1846). Her most famous work.
- En fattig familj (A poor family) (reportage, 1850)
- Tvillingbrodern (The twin brother) (novel, 1851)
- Lycksökarna (The fortune hunters) (novel, 1852)
- Dalkullan (play, 1858)
- I Skogen (In the woods) (children's book, 1871)
- Bland trollen (Among the ogres) (children's book, 1877)
- Under hängranarne (Under the hanging trees) (novel, 1877)