Suzannah Daae Ibsen was a Norwegian woman who was the wife of playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen and mother of noted politician Sigurd Ibsen.
Occupation
playwright, poet, writer, translator
Citizenship
Norway
Born
June 26, 1836
Died
April 3, 1914
Overview
Suzannah Ibsen (née Thoresen; 26 June 1836 – 3 April 1914) was a Norwegian woman who was the wife of playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen and mother of noted politician Sigurd Ibsen.
Biography
Suzannah Daae Thoresen was born in Herøy, Møre og Romsdal, Norway. Her parents were Hans Conrad Thoresen (1802–1858) and his second wife, Sara Margrethe Daae (1806–1841). After her mother's death in childbirth, her father married the family's Danish-born governess, Magdalene Kragh (1819–1903), who became a poet, novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her family subsequently moved to Bergen where her father was dean of the historic Holy Cross Church (Korskirken).
After the success of his first publicly successful drama The Feast at Solhaug, Ibsen was invited to Magdalene Thoresen’s literary salon. It was here he first met and fell in love with Suzannah. Henrik Ibsen was at this time the stage director at the Norwegian Theatre (Det Norske Theater) in Bergen. The two had been childhood friends and met each other for a second time at a ball where they did nothing but talk for the entire night instead of dance. Henrik later wrote a poem declaring his admiration for her, which appears to be about that night.
In 1858 Suzannah Ibsen translated Graf Waldemar (1847) by German dramatist Gustav Freytag into Norwegian. The play was first performed in September 1861.
