Minna Canth

Born into a working-class family in nineteenth-century Finland, Minna Canth became a trailblazer as the country's first woman playwright: she shocked audiences with her daring and won them over with her skill. At the same time, she ran a business that made her one of the most successful merchants in her city and raised her seven children.

Canth discovered in her middle age that she could begin a professional career in more than one field and change her society too. As a social realist who wrote in Finnish and championed the rights of women and workers, Canth was at the heart of an era of national awakening that prepared Finland for independence from Russia. A woman who did not hesitate to challenge authority and expose injustice, she had both admirers and enemies.

This biography by Alisa Manninen, the translator of Canth's plays The Workman's Wife and Anna Liisa, explores how she became a national icon in her own lifetime by being unafraid to be political.