Amanda Kerfstedt

Hilda Augusta Amanda Kerfstedt, née Hallström (5 June 1835, in Eskilstuna – 10 April 1920, in Stockholm), was a Swedish novelist, playwright and translator. She was a popular and noted writer in late 19th and early 20th century Sweden, and participated in the public debate. She was also engaged in the movement for women's rights, and active in the Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet and Föreningen för gift kvinnas äganderätt. As a feminist, she focused on the debate around sexual equality, and was critical to the contemporary sexual double standards for men and women. As such, she was one of the participants in the Sedlighetsdebatten (Morality Debate), the public debate in Swedish papers, books and plays, which took place during the 1880s. She was the editor of the feminist paper Dagny, the organ of the Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet, in 1888-1891. She was especially noted within the debate on children's literature.

Contents

• Works
• Childrens literature
• References

Kerfstedt was born to Sven August Hallström, mayor of Eskilstuna, and Albertina Dybeck, and was the maternal niece to scientist Richard Dybeck. She married Hedemora parish vicar Bengt Gustaf Lindgren (d. 1858) in 1855, and Petrus Kerfstedt (d. 1906), principal at the Tomteboda institute for the blind, in 1872. She had two children: her son Hellen Lindgren became a well known literary critic.