Tove ditlevsen gyldendal engelsk and die

By the time of her death at 58 in , she had published 29 books, having published her first poetry collection while barely out of her teens.

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The Scandinavian answer to Salinger, she is taught to Danish schoolchildren. Why, then, has it taken the UK a century to publish her work — and why should we read her now? First, though, the books. While Ditlevsen may have broken out as a poet — her debut collection, Pigesind , was published in , when she was 22 — it is the memoirs and novels of the late Sixties for which she is now being recognised beyond Denmark.

Even basics, such as her date of birth according to history, December ; according to her books, a year later are subject to such massaging. They are stiff and immovable, like the lampposts in the street, but at least they change in the evening when the lamplighter has touched them with his magic wand. But why did Ditlevsen, an author so well-known in Denmark, need a re-appraisal?

Tove Ditlevsen () wrote poems from the age of ten; in she managed to get one of them published in Vild Hvede (Wild Wheat).

It was really bizarre but also fascinating. She was snubbed for literary prizes. The beauty of Ditlevsen arriving as a relative unknown on our shores is that 'you can present her in a clean slate'. A century on, and Ditlevsen is finally being allowed new ground. No longer a much-discussed outlier of the male establishment, nor a public figure known as much for her problems as her poetry.

Instead, she stands on her own literary merit — exactly as she wanted as a girl. What did you think of this article? Let us know at editor penguinrandomhouse.