Authors

Finnish · 1844–1897

Minna Canth

Minna Canth was the first Finnish woman playwright to achieve major recognition and one of the most important Scandinavian social dramatists of the nineteenth century. Her plays — Työmiehen vaimo (The Worker's Wife, 1885), Anna Liisa (1895), Papin perhe (The Parson's Family, 1891) — attacked the oppression of women and the poor with unflinching directness. She ran a textile shop in Kuopio to support her seven children while writing. She is the only Finnish author honoured with a national flag day (19 March).