TOVE Ditlevsen
One of the most famous Danish female writers, poetess, mother of four, addict, and just a very hardworking woman
She came from a rather poor family. Her father worked as stoker; he was interested in politics and literature. She was 7 years old when her father lost his job and the family began to live on the edge of poverty. Childhood experiences became a vital theme in her work.
Tove wrote her first poems at the age of 10, and since then dreamed about becoming a poet. At the age of 14, she had to leave school and go to work as a governess. Her parents considered further education unnecessary for the girl.
One of the most famous Danish female writers
TOVE WAS BORN IN A WORKING-CLASS AREA OF COPENHAGEN IN 1917
Just a few years later, in 1941, her debut novel “You Hurt a Child” (DeepL) (“Man gjer et barn fortraed”) was published. It was well-received by critics and publishers. She had never received a proper education
From the very start, Tove’s works were different from the books of her contemporaries. She wrote very genuinely and did not hesitate to talk about her personal life experience and the life of women of the mid-20th century. She often raised controversial questions that were not accepted in serious literature.
Tove published her first novel at the age of 20
she had always dealt with topics that were too bold for her time
MENTAL DISORDERS
ILLEGAL ABORTIONS
SOLACE IN CREATIVITY
DIVORCEs AND INFIDELITY
loneliness
FINDING YOUR VOICE
PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS
DIFFICULTIES OF MOTHERHOOD
DRUG AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION
Although Ditlevsen was often described as a “literary outsider”, she did not lack recognition. Her books were published by Copenhagen’s leading literary publishing house, Gyldendal. In total, Ditlevsen published about 30 books, including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, children’s books, and autobiographies. And in 1986, a film based on the writer’s stories about her childhood in Copenhagen was released.
After Tove`s death, her books were very seldom published. But in the past few years, her works became popular and relevant again. A few years ago, her work was included in the Danish school curriculum. And later, "Tove fever" spread all over the world.
This is one of her the most famous works. In the trilogy, Ditlevsen acts as a documentarian, dispassionately describing the details of her life. But despite the documentary nature of the prose, it is also indeed poetic.
In 2020, the rights to publish the Copenhagen Trilogy were bought in 25 languages.
In 2020, the rights to publish the Copenhagen Trilogy were bought in 25 languages.
IN 1955, SHE BECAME THE FIRST woman POET to RECEIVE THE DANISH LITERARY AWARD “GOLDEN LAURELS”
THE COPENHAGEN TRILOGY
Researchers suppose that her sudden popularity is related to the new trend for autobiography. The genre was not so easy for Tove — she often admitted that she felt like a clown who entertains the audience with the ins and outs of her life.
Although tove wrote documentary and autobiographical prose, her books are truly
POETIC
Memory, that library of the soul from which I will draw knowledge and experience for the rest of my life.
Someday I’ll write down all the words that flow through me. Someday other people will read them in a book and marvel that a girl could be a poet, after all
I sink into a sweet melancholy and rhythmic waves of words stream through me again.
I wrote love poems to the man in the moon, to Ruth, or to no one at all. I thought my poems covered the bare places in my childhood like the fine, new skin under a scab that hasn’t yet fallen off completely. Would my adult form be shaped by my poems? I wondered. During that time I was almost always depressed. The wind in the street blew so cold through my tall, thin body that the world regarded with disapproving looks.
«Childhood», 1967
«Youth», 1967
«Childhood», 1967
«Childhood», 1967
Even though no one else cares for my poems, I have to write them because it dulls the sorrow and longing in my heart.
«Youth», 1967
«Childhood», 1967
Childhood is dark and it’s always moaning like a little animal that’s locked in a cellar and forgotten. It comes out of your throat like your breath in the cold, and sometimes it’s too little, other times too big. It never fits exactly. It’s only when it has been cast off that you can look at it calmly and talk about it like an illness you’ve survived.
Tove was
— to A writer, a student, a doctor and a civil servant
But her marriages didn`t seem to go so well
cheated a lot
Too old
too young
personal drug dealer
married
4 times
4 times
no foto :(
?
SINCE THEN, Tove GOT HOOKED ON DRUGS AND STRUGGLED WITH ADDICTION ALMOST UNTIL her death
Her first husband, the writer Viggo Moeller, was 30 years older than she was. He introduced Tove to other writers and helped her found the “Club of Young Artists”. But two years later the marriage broke up. The writer described this period of her life in the novel “Youth”.
We don`t know much about Tove`s second husband. Ebbe Munk, a Master of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, was a bit older than Tove. After the birth of her first child, the writer suffered from a severe pain syndrome and depression.
Tove`s third marriage with the doctor Kurt T. Rayberg became fatal for her. Not long before the marriage, Tove asked Rayberg for help with an abortion. During the operation, he gave her a painkiller containing opium, and she immediately got hooked on drugs.
She wrote about these events in the novel “Addiction” (in Danish, the novel is called Gift — poison, marriage)
?
The marriage, and the drug addiction, lasted almost five years. Ryberg provided Tove with drugs and she stayed at home almost the whole time, trying to write. When she finally asked for help, she weighed only 30 kilograms. After a course of treatment, they broke up.
All that was too much for the young couple and they broke up. However, Tove almost immediately got married again — to a man who could help her forget her physical and mental pain.
The last marriage with Victor Andreas, an editor and, later, a high-ranking Danish official, was probably the happiest. Together they raised four children (three from previous marriages), went to numerous diplomatic receptions and had numerous fights.
Tove raised four children, wrote numerous poems and novels and, in addition to that, she also worked as a journalist. However, other journalists often teased her for being a mother with four kids, calling Tove
The marriage with Victor Andreas lasted for 22 years
"A WRITING HOUSEWIFE FROM A WORKING ENVIRONMENT"
They both had complicated characters. In addition, Victor Andreas often cheated on her, which unsettled the writer. During her marriage, Tove was in psychiatric hospitals several times
After the break up, Tove took revenge by describing their life together in the novel “Wilhelm’s Room”.
The portrait turned out to be so unsightly that Andreas had to leave the service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and retire. Returning to the newspaper, he organized a campaign against state support for artistic figures.
The portrait turned out to be so unsightly that Andreas had to leave the service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and retire. Returning to the newspaper, he organized a campaign against state support for artistic figures.
But she had more serious problems
In April 1974, she made her first suicide attempt.
Two days previously, a video interview with her was recorded for television. Later, it was included in a 30-minute film about her life and work, “A Writer Named Tove”.
Two days previously, a video interview with her was recorded for television. Later, it was included in a 30-minute film about her life and work, “A Writer Named Tove”.
Addiction
Tove SUFFERED FROM DEPRESSION, MENTAL DISORDERS, DRUG AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION FOR MANY YEARS
Long-term drug addiction, divorces and stress left their traces on the writer. She was in psychiatric hospitals several times. During her stay at the St. Hans Clinic in Roskilde, Tove worked on “Childhood” and “Youth” — the first parts of the “Copenhagen Trilogy”. And the experience of dealing with mental illness and being in the hospital was described in detail in the novel “Faces”.
What if I told him the truth? What if I told him I was in love with a clear liquid in a syringe and not with the man who had the syringe? But I didn’t tell him; I never told that to anyone.
for as long as I live
Life
REAL
price
WAS too
HIGH to be able
to keep away
Two years later, at the age of 58, Tove committed suicide in a friend’s apartment by taking a lethal dose of sleeping pills. Almost 1,000 people attended the funeral service in Vesterbro, the area where she had spent her childhood.
In a farewell letter to her daughter, she explained: The intervals between depressions are getting shorter and shorter, and life no longer has
the slightest
the slightest
charm
no
By the time she committed suicide in 1976, Tove was one of Denmark’s most popular and acclaimed writers
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