Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Johan Ibsen was born 20 March 1828 in the port town of Skien, Norway, the son of Marichen and Knud Ibsen, a merchant. While apprenticing with a chemist Ibsen found his true calling, writing Catiline (1850), a tragedy in verse. While living in Germany Ibsen married Suzannah Thoreson with whom he would have a son. Ibsen wrote for and about the middle class and life in the suburbs and small towns. He focused on characters and psychological conflicts rather than dramatic situations.  

  It has been said that Ibsen himself suffered from depression and at times contemplated suicide.He was a central figure in the modern break-through in the intellectual life of Europe, and is considered the father of modern drama.  Ibsen returned to Oslo to spend his final years. Plagued by ill health including paralysing strokes that caused him to be bedridden, he died peacefully on 23 May 1906. He lies buried in the Cemetery of Our Saviour, Vår Frelsers Gravlund, in Oslo, Norway.