Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway on March 20, 1828. He was born to Knud and Marichen Ibsen as their second child. He comes from a long line of Norwegian fisherman, which ended with his father who owned a successful distillery, for a time. When Henrik Ibsen was just a boy, his family lost all of their fortunes and most of their property, and his father entered a downward spiral. During his teenage years, he apprenticed at an apothecary, but his family was still in a dire socioeconomic status. In 1846 when Ibsen was 18, he had an illegitimate child with a servant, Else Sofie Jensdatter, and he spent most of his life paying for his upbringing although he never knew his son. In 1848, Ibsen began writing essays and poetry which led up to his first dramatic writing, Catiline.  He spent the next few years studying theater and writing plays at the National Theater in Bergen and the Norwegian Theater in Christiania. He married Suzannah Thoresen and had his only legitimate child, Sigurd. As he grew more successful, Ibsen traveled around Europe to Italy and Germany and wrote more plays in various countries. One of his most famous play, A Doll's House, was written in Rome and Amalfi, Italy. He returned to Norway in his late adult life and continued to write until 1899. In the next five years, Ibsen suffers two strokes, the last of which left him unable to write. On May 23, 1906, Henrik Ibsen died in Christiania. [4, 6, 7]