31 Facts About Harriet Bosse

The spectrum of Strindberg's feelings about Harriet Bosse, ranging from worship to rage, is reflected in the roles he wrote for her to play, or as portraits of her.

Harriet Bosse married Swedish actor Anders Gunnar Wingard in 1908, and Swedish screen actor, director, and matinee idol Edvin Adolphson in 1927.

Harriet Bosse was born in Norway's capital Kristiania, today called Oslo, as the thirteenth of fourteen children of Anne-Marie and Johann Heinrich Harriet Bosse.

Harriet Bosse's German father was a publisher and bookseller, and his business led to the family's alternating residence in Kristiania and Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

Harriet Bosse was to experience some confusion of national identity throughout her life, and to take the 512 kilometres rail trip between the cities many times.

Two of Bosse's older sisters, Alma and Dagmar, were already successful performers when Harriet was a small child.

Harriet Bosse applied for a place at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, the main drama venue of Stockholm, governed by the conservative tastes of King Oscar II and his personal advisors.

Harriet Bosse turned from naturalism to symbolism in his prolific literary output, and his convictions and interests at the turn of the twentieth century focused less on politics and more on theosophy, mysticism, and the occult.

Harriet Bosse later published Strindberg's letters from their courtship and marriage.

Incidents narrated in those letters and in Harriet Bosse's own interspersed comments have been analysed at length by biographers and psychiatrists, and have become part of the "Strindberg legend".

Harriet Bosse was entranced when he saw the dark, exotic-looking, petite twenty-two-year-old Bosse play her first major part, an impish Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Harriet Bosse immediately picked her out as a suitable actress for the part of The Lady in his coming play To Damascus, and invited her to his bachelor establishment to discuss the role.

Harriet Bosse gave it to him, and he used this feather, with a steel nib insert, to write all his dramas during their marriage.

Strindberg wooed Harriet Bosse by sending her books about theosophy and the occult, by attempting to mould her mind, and by furthering her career.

Harriet Bosse asserts in her edition of the Letters that she tended to hang back, as did the management, being in agreement that she lacked the experience for major and complex roles.

Harriet Bosse relates how she went to see Strindberg to ask him to give the part to a more experienced actress, but he assured her she would be perfect for it.

Strindberg insisted that Harriet Bosse bring none of her possessions to the home he had furnished for her, creating a "setting in which to nurture and dominate her".

Harriet Bosse planned sunny drives in hired victorias, but often the mystical "Powers" which governed him intervened.

Harriet Bosse wrote in the Letters that she had nothing to do but stay at home and choke down the tears while Strindberg attempted consolation by giving her a Baedeker "to read a trip in".

Harriet Bosse's letters show that Bosse inspired several important characters in his plays, especially during the course of 1901, and that he manipulated her by promising to pull strings so that she could play them.

Carla Waal counts eight minor and six major roles written for Harriet Bosse to act, or as portraits of her, several of them classics of Western theatre history.

The years refer to dates of publication; Harriet Bosse never played in Swan White, even though Strindberg kept proposing it, and though she was many years later to describe this play as Strindberg's wedding present to her.

Harriet Bosse sees the courtiers as representing various stages of Strindberg's own emotions: Tott, in the first glow of love; de la Gardie, betrayed but loyal; Oxenstierna, who has rejected her.

Agnes, played by and representing Harriet Bosse, is the daughter of the Vedic god Indra, descending to earth to observe human life and bring its disappointments to the attention of her divine father.

Harriet Bosse left the Royal Dramatic Theatre with its conventional repertoire and began working at Albert Ranft's Swedish Theatre, where she and the skilful but more modest actor Gunnar Wingard formed a popular co-star team.

Harriet Bosse travelled frequently, particularly for guest performances in Helsinki, leaving little Anne-Marie with Strindberg, a competent and affectionate father.

In 1907, Harriet Bosse made theatrical history as Indra's daughter in Strindberg's epoch-making Dream Play.

In 1911, a divorced woman with two children to care for and support, Harriet Bosse returned to the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

Harriet Bosse made two films, ambitiously shot and directed and based on novels by well-known writers.

Harriet Bosse's technique was still often praised, but sometimes perceived as old-fashioned and mannered, in comparison with the more ensemble-oriented style of the times.

Harriet Bosse always guarded her privacy, so much so that the memoir she wrote of her life with Strindberg was deemed to be too uninterestingly discreet to be publishable.