Anker, Nini Roll (1873–1942)

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Anker, Nini Roll (1873–1942)

Norwegian novelist. Name variations: (pseudonyms) Jo Nein and Kaare P. Born Nicoline Magdalen Roll in Molde, Norway, in 1873; died in 1942; daughter of Ferdinand Roll; married Peter Anker, in 1892 (divorced 1907); married Johan Anker, in 1910.

Selected works:

I blinde (Blind, 1898); Benedicte Stendal (1909).

Born into an aristocratic Norwegian family, Nicoline Roll produced novels depicting the lives of the less advantaged. Her father, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, stationed his family in Molde where Nicoline lived until the age of 18 or 19. In 1892, she married an estate owner named Peter Anker and moved to Halden. (Fifteen years later, she would divorce Anker, then marry Johan Anker, an engineer and cousin to her first husband, in 1910.)

Anker's first novel I blinde (Blind) was published in 1898 under the pseudonym Jo Nein. Benedicte Stendal, a novel in diary form, was published in 1909. In all, she produced 29 books and many articles and essays, the most successful of which were the dairy-novels. Her credits include several books for adolescents, published under the name Kaare P., which critics long believed to be the work of a young man.

Crista Martin , Boston, Massachusetts

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