Howlin' Marie

Howlin' Marie

The story of a young girl growing up in Copenhagen in the 1880's

Maria Andersen (1876 - 1941)
Originally edited by Gudrun Eriksen
Translated from the Danish by Elin Elgaard
Illustrations by Lene Bourgeat

6 X 9 inches, 144 pages

Scandinavian Literature in Translation
WHAT STARTED, for Marie Andersen, as a simple exercise in writing off oppression — which her background had become to her — turned out to be a source of joy to children already in her own lifetime. To us, this three-volume memoir that the Howlin' Marie books form, is of valuable historical merit as well; the Copenhagen of the 1880s comes vividly before us with all its sombre class differences. Yet, told with such bubbling good humour, they might as justly have been called the Happy Marie books.

The series has been reprinted again and again — and now, in English, translated by Elin Elgaard.

Howlin' Marie, by Maria Andersen, is based on an originally three-volume memoir written by the author (1876-1941) for her children but has gained great popularity in Denmark mainly through its description of life in the Copenhagen of the 1880s. The stories about Marie are told with great pieces of evidence, about Norsemen, or Vikings, in the Midwest.
—The Scandinavian-American Bulletin



Maria Andersen
Author

Maria Andersen grew up within a poor, too-large family and went on to become a catering officer at Roskilde Hospital from 1906 until her death.

Maria Andersen never worked with any method: scribbling away, she did not bother to look back, let alone revise her work. She welcomed her fellow writer and time-honoured friend, Gudrun Eriksen, to the job of editor. The third volume was barely finished at the time of her death. This presented no difficulty to Gudrun Eriksen, however — she knew her friend and her story so well that she felt competent to round it off.