Minna Canth

Minna Canth (1844–1897) was a Finnish playwright and novelist, and the first Finnish woman to have her work performed on the professional stage. Born in Tampere, she ran a draper's shop after her husband's early death, raising seven children alone while writing some of the most socially daring literature of her era.Her plays tackled subjects that nobody else in Finnish literature would touch — the rights of women, the violence of poverty, the hypocrisy of the church, and the crushing weight of social expectation on ordinary lives. She was celebrated in her lifetime, controversial in her politics, and deeply beloved in Finland, where her birthday — March 19th — is still observed as a national day honouring equality and Finnish culture.Outside Finland she is almost completely unknown. Anna Liisa, written in 1895, is considered her masterpiece — a work that stands alongside the great Scandinavian dramas of Ibsen and Strindberg, and deserves to be read alongside them.