Peter Andreas Heiberg

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Peter Andreas Heiberg (November 16, 1758 - April 30, 1841) was a Danish author and philologist. He was born in Vordingborg, Denmark.

His father, the headmaster of a grammar school, died when Heiberg was just two years old, and his mother moved with the children to live with her father, a priest. This was to be Heiberg's home until he went to grammar school, from which he graduated in 1774. In 1777 he took the greater philological exam, and in 1779 he left Copenhagen, presumably due to gambling debts. He then went to Sweden to join the Swedish military forces. One and a half years later, his family bought him out of his military service, and after a short stay in Uppsala, he went to Bergen, where he stayed with his uncle for three years. In Bergen Heiberg met several writers who inspired him to start writing himself. After his return to Copenhagen, he used his linguistic skills to get a job as an interpreter. Heiberg also translates a publication by the French writer Jean-Charles Laveaux, which was highly critical towards the upper class, this was likely the reason why Heiberg chose to publish the translated version anonymously. In 1790, Heiberg marries the 16 year old Thomasine Buntzen with whom he has the son Johan Ludvig.

Many of Heiberg's role models were French and usually marked by the ideals of the enlightenment age.

His début novel Rigsdalersedlens Hændelser (1789) critically describes merchants, the nobility and the German influence on Denmark. This novel highly angers the Danish upper class, but Heiberg keeps writing similarly critical songs, articles, essays and plays. This leads to Heiberg being banished on Christmas eve, 1799 after having been given many warnings and fines. Hereafter, Heiberg settles in Paris where he lives until his death in 1841.