1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Flygare-Carlén, Emilie

FLYGARE-CARLÉN, EMILIE (1807–1892), Swedish novelist, was born in Strömstad on the 8th of August 1807. Her father, Rutger Smith, was a retired sea-captain who had settled down as a small merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the coast. She married in 1827 a doctor named Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the province of Småland. After his death in 1833 she returned to her old home and published in 1838 her first novel, Waldemar Klein. In the next year she removed to Stockholm, and married, in 1841, the jurist and poet, Johan Gabriel Carlén (1814–1875). Her house became a meeting-place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829–1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her writing until 1884. The most famous of her tales are Rosen på Tistelön (1842; Eng. trans. The Rose of Tistelön, 1842); Enslingen på Johannesskäret (1846; Eng. trans. The Hermit, 4 vols., 1853); and Ett Köpemanshus i skärgården (1859; The Merchant’s House on the Cliffs). Fru Carlén published in 1878 Minnen af svenskt författarlif 1840–1860, and in 1887–1888 three volumes of Efterskörd från en 80- årings författarbana, containing her last tales. She died at Stockholm on the 5th of February 1892. Her daughter, Rosa Carlén (1836–1883), was also a popular novelist.

Emilie Flygare-Carlén’s novels were collected in thirty-one volumes (Stockholm, 1869–1875).