60 Facts About Moa Martinson

Moa Martinson's ambition was to change society with her authorship and to portray the conditions of the working class, and the personal development of women.

Moa Martinson's works were about motherhood, love, poverty, politics, religion, urbanization and the hard living conditions of the working-class woman.

Moa Martinson's mother was Kristina Swartz who served as a maid wherever jobs were available.

Moa Martinson was a sometime statare who worked odd jobs in the countryside outside Norrkoping.

Moa Martinson married Swartz on 11March 1896, and they had three more daughters, but they all died within days of being born.

Moa Martinson was confirmed in 1905 in Risinge Church, Finspang Municipality, after which she got her first job at a farm in Vikbolandet.

Moa Martinson stops, enthralled by the silence and beauty of the summer night.

In 1906, Moa Martinson moved to Stockholm in the hope of getting a job, but this turned out to be harder than she expected.

Moa Martinson wrote poems and sent a collection to a notary interested in literature, but her work was rejected.

Moa Martinson later described the poems as "lofty", since that was how she thought such texts should be written.

Moa Martinson was nine years older, and was a stone worker who lived with his brother Valfrid and their father Johan Petter in a torp called Johannesdal, in the woods between Osmo and Sorunda.

Moa Martinson became pregnant in March 1909 and Johansson proposed, but Martinson was doubtful about marrying him.

Moa Martinson recounted the birth in Kvinnor och appeltrad, which has been called "one of Swedish literature's most powerful depictions of a childbirth".

Moa Martinson was opposed to spanking children and disliked the militant nationalistic romanticism taught in schools at the time.

Moa Martinson continued writing for the paper and in 1923 she had articles published weekly in Arbetaren.

Moa Martinson frequently engaged in debates, especially those involving women's issues.

Quarrels started at the magazine, resulting in Moa Martinson resigning from the paper, but due to her contributions in Arbetaren she was now known to the public although mostly in syndicalistic circles.

One author who had significant impact on Moa Martinson was Martin Andersen Naxo.

Moa Martinson wrote a letter to him, telling him about her own life and sent an article she had written for Arbetaren.

Shortly afterwards Moa Martinson started writing the book Pigmamman.

Moa Martinson worked incessantly to keep her grief at bay.

In September 1925, Vi Kvinnor was discontinued and soon after Moa Martinson started working for Arbetaren again.

Moa Martinson worked for the paper Brand in April 1925, and became part of the political circles in Stockholm.

Moa Martinson's first contribution was an article about unemployed men's women.

Moa Martinson wrote it under a new signature, Moa, because she did not want the syndicalistic circles she moved in to see that she worked for a liberal magazine.

Moa Martinson had found the name "Moa" in the novel Jokeln by Danish author Johannes V Jensen, where the character "Moa" was described as the first mother of humanity.

Moa Martinson was hoping to be offered a job at the paper, but instead Welinder wanted her to work as a housemaid for him and do some writing for the magazine in exchange for food and shelter in his house.

Moa Martinson was a former sailor, now hobo writer who had been published in Brand and Arbetare-kuriren so she had heard of him and read some of his works.

Moa Martinson started hallucinating and could not eat or sleep.

Moa Martinson tried to get him to a doctor but he refused.

The couple had very little money so in 1932, Moa Martinson sent a draft called En man byggde to publisher Tor Bonnier.

Moa Martinson continued to develop the draft during the following year and when it was finalized into a book, the title was changed to Kvinnor och Appletrad.

Simultaneously, Harry was diagnosed with neurosis and Moa Martinson was deeply concerned for him.

Moa Martinson was fourteen years younger than she, and their marriage had not been easy.

Moa Martinson started to leave the apartment now and then without any explanation of why or where he was going, and would be gone for days.

Not knowing where her husband was, Moa Martinson soon became desperate with despair and jealousy.

Moa Martinson even hired a private detective, but when this yielded nothing, she soon gave up.

Unknown to Moa Martinson, Harry had started to see a new woman during his time away from home.

When he had been gone ten days, Moa Martinson posted a personal telegram on the Swedish radio urging him to come home.

Moa Martinson became fascinated by the communist society, while Harry was appalled by Stalin's cult of personality.

Moa Martinson decided to leave because she had been having disagreements with Tor Bonnier since 1934.

Moa Martinson was one of the Bonnier-founder's two grandsons who jointly ran the company at the time.

Moa Martinson had been working on Motsols for ten years.

Harry's were love letters, while Moa Martinson still found it difficult to trust him after his extramarital affairs.

Moa Martinson's letters were not as affectionate as his and their relationship was crumbling.

Moa Martinson broke contact with Martinson and after Midsummer 1939, he filed for divorce and never returned to her or Johannesdal.

Moa Martinson relied on Lo-Johansson to deliver messages to Harry when he was out on his wanderings and his whereabouts were unknown to her.

Over six years Moa Martinson had published eight books and had gained most critics' respect.

When it came to Soviet participation in the war, Moa Martinson had a different opinion and believed that Russian workers were defending their revolution.

Moa Martinson had help from her friend, actress Naima Wifstrand.

Moa Martinson wrote a lengthy screenplay that she sent to director Per Lindberg, who became interested.

Moa Martinson proposed that they would contact AB Svensk Filmindustri.

However, Moa Martinson's ambitions were too big and when she demanded an advance and an answer straight away, SF showed no interest.

Moa Martinson's memories were given shape in a love novel called Den osynlige alskaren.

Moa Martinson's books were reaching a wide audience and she now had readers who could identify with the environment she was portraying, instead of people being shocked by her naturalistic scenes.

Moa Martinson wrote diligently and had causerie and debate articles published in several daily and weekly papers.

Moa Martinson was frequently hired to give lectures and traveled the country on different tours.

However, despite her low reputation as a writer, Moa Martinson still meant a lot to working-class women.

On 5August 1964, Moa Martinson died at 73 years of age in Sorunda.

The Moa Award is an annual prize awarded to a person who writes in the spirit of Martinson.