Agnes Henningsen

Agnes Kathinka Malling Henningsen (18 November 1868 – 21 April 1962) was a Danish writer and an activist for sexual freedom. Her writings were centred on love and sex, as was her own life. She sometimes published stories under the pen name Helga Maynert.

Career She married Mads Henningsen, a schoolteacher, with whom she had three children. The marriage ended in divorce after he left her to emigrate to America. Henningsen then had a relationship with the writer Carl Ewald, who became the father of her fourth child, the architect and designer Poul Henningsen. Here Henningsen develops a much more direct style of her own, free from Bang's influence. In 1919, she married the writer Simon Koch but continued her extramarital relationships, refusing to adopt the conventions of the bourgeoisie. Her most successful works are her eight volumes of memoirs (Erindringer) from 1941 to 1955, tracing the various episodes of her life: Let Gang paa Jorden (Stepping Lightly on the Ground), Letsindighedens Gave (Gift of Recklessness), Byen erobret (City Conquered), Kærlighedssynder (Sins of Love), Dødsfjende-Hjertenskær (Mortal Enemy-Heartthrob), Jeg er Levemand (I'm Alive), Den rige Fugl (The Rich Bird) and Skygger over Vejen (Shadows on the Road).

Legacy For most of her life, Henningsen was criticized by her contemporaries for her liberal sexual views and behaviour, but she later saw more positive interest in her work from the younger generation. When the Danish Academy was founded in 1960, she was one of its two female members, the other being Karen Blixen.