Mathilda Roos


Lovisa Mathilda Roos was a Swedish writer.

Biography

Lovisa Mathilda Roos was born 2 August 1852, in Stockholm. Her parents were Malte Leopold Roos, a major at Svea Artillery Regiment, and Mathilda Beata Meurk. She was educated at home and at Åhlinska skolan. Remaining unmarried, she lived with his sister Anna and sometimes also with Laura Fitinghoff, with whom she built the Furuliden house in Stocksund, which later became, as she had hoped, a rest home for women.
Roos' novels usually dealt with women's issues and misconduct in society. She was not afraid to address sensitive subjects at that time including lesbian love in Den första kärleken. A religious crisis in the 1880s affected her later books. In the novel Hvit ljung, she takes up the unclear living conditions of a teacher and rape. This is considered to have contributed to a government decision that greatly improved teachers' salaries. In women's political pamphlets, she addressed Ellen Key's ideas, Ett ord till fröken Ellen Key och till den svenska kvinnan, 1896. Roos died 17 July 1908, in Danderyd.

Selected works

;Fiction
;For children and young readers