Aurora Ljungstedt

Aurora Lovisa Ljungstedt (; 2 September 1821 – 21 February 1908), was a Swedish writer writing under the pseudonym Claude Gérard. She is regarded to be the first crime novel author of her country and has been referred to as Sweden's Edgar Allan Poe.

Life Aurora Lovisa Hjort was born 2 September 1821 in Karlskrona. She was the eldest of four children of major Georg Leonard Hjort (1788–1872) and Fredrika Elisabeth Alf (1792–1877). In 1846, she married Samuel Viktor Ljungstedt (1820–1904), an official in the prison care bureau, and settled in Stockholm. She had three children.

Ljungstedt displayed talent early on but her mother disapproved of a literary career as unsuitable as this would make her a public person. After having married, she was free to write with the support of her spouse. She debuted in the 1840s, and wrote anonymously until her pseudonym was unintentionally exposed in the 1870s.

Her crime novels were very successful in Sweden and were also translated to French and Danish. She was inspired by Eugéne Sue and Edward Bulwer and wrote crime novels in the then fashionable sensationalist horror style, often with supernatural phenomena.

Ljungstedt died on 21 February 1908 in Stockholm.