Magdalene Sophie Buchholm

Magdalene Sophie Buchholm (15 March 1758, Skien - 12 August 1825, Kragerø), was a Norwegian poet. She was called "Sappho of the North". She was the only acknowledged female Norwegian writer of her time, and the only female in the academic society Det Norske Selskab.

Magdalene Sophie Buchholm was the daughter of mayor Mogens Bentsen (1715–70) and Sophie Hellesdatter (1720–98). She married vicar Peter Leganger Castberg (1752–1784) in 1777, and the merchant and custom inspector Joachim Frederik Buchholm (1762–1834) in 1785. She grew up in Kongsvinger, but move to Copenhagen in 1778. Her spouse became the vicar of Flekkefjord in Norway in 1781, but although he and their children moved there, she made frequent and long term trips to Copenhagen. Her second spouse became a custom inspector in Stavanger in 1798 and Kragerø in 1806, and the couple became centers of these town's society life.

In 1778, she was inducted in the academic society Det Norske Selskab: she became the first member of her sex in the society. In 1783, she was awarded by Det Norske Selskab for her poetry, which is regarded as her perhaps greatest triumph: her work was included in a publication by the academy and she was given the name "Sappho of the North". She published a collection of almost all of her works in 1793.

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