Catharina Ahlgren

Catharina Ahlgren (1734 – c. 1800) was a Swedish proto-feminist poet and publisher, and one of the first identifiable female journalists in Sweden.

She was the publisher and chief editor of a number of different women's periodicals in Stockholm and in Finland between 1772 and 1783, and the publisher of the first periodical (as well as the first one by a woman) in Finland Om konsten att rätt behaga (1782). She is also known for her correspondence with Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht. Ahlgren was a leading person in the Swedish "female literary world of the 1750s and 1770s".

Her contemporary, the orientalist and writer Jonas Apelblad, listed her in his writers dictionary as a strong and gifted personality, "emina potens, sed ingenio plena" ("a forceful woman, but full of talent") who did not live a more peaceful life with her second spouse then she had with her first.

Literary career

Translator and poet Catharina Ahlgren reportedly became known as a poet and translator in the 1750s literary world before she had anything formally published. She was a personal friend of the famed poet Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht, and their correspondence is preserved. While her friend Nordenflycht wrote under the pseudonym "Herdinnan i Norden" (Shepherdess of the North), Catharina Ahlgren wrote under the name "Herdinnan i Ahl-Lunden" (Shepherdess of the Alder-Grove).

Catharina Ahlgren also played a pioneer role in Finland, where she lived in Åbo from at least 1782 onward. She is identified as the editor behind Om konsten att rätt behaga ('Of the Art to Please Properly'), which was, in fact, the first periodical published in Finland. few have been identified. Margareta Momma, Anna Maria Rückerschöld and Catharina Ahlgren belong to the few which has been identified.

Literary women were viewed as fashionable. A male editor stated during a publication of a female poet: "As we wish for nothing higher than to encourage the knowledge among us, it cannot be anything other than pleasant that a member of the gender [women] so admirably support our intention."

Works Au jour de l'illustre naissance de sa majestee notre adourable Reine Le 24 Jullet, poem for the birthday to queen Louisa Ulrika, 1764 Abrahams bepröfwelse, translation of the Die Prüfung Abrahams by Christoph Martin Wieland, 1772 Brefwäxling emellan twänne fruntimmer, den ena i Stockholm och den andra på landet i åskillige blandade ämnen, 1-2, periodical, 29 October 1772-February 1773, 24 numbers Det olyckliga Fruntimret, eller Elisabeth Windhams bedröfweliga öden, translation, 1772 La Femme Malhereuse, translation Brefväxling emellan Adelaide och någre wittre snillen i omwäxlande ämnen periodical 23 numbers, 1773 Fortsättning af Adelaides brefwäxling, angående Fru Windhams historie, periodical, 20 numbers, 1773 De Nymodiga Fruntimren, eller Sophias och Bélisindes Tankespel, 16 numbers, 1773 Om konsten att rätt behaga, periodical, 1782 Angenäma Sjelfswåld, periodical, 1783 Den lyckliga bondflickan, 1-2, translation of C. de Fieux Mouhy, 1796-1811