Cora Sandel facts for kids
Sara Cecilia Görvell Fabricius (born December 20, 1880 – died April 3, 1974) was a famous Norwegian writer and painter. She is better known by her pen name, Cora Sandel. She spent most of her adult life living outside of Norway. Her most well-known books are a series of novels called the Alberta Trilogy.
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Cora Sandel: Early Life and Art
Sara Cecilia Görvell Fabricius was born in Kristiania, Norway. Today, this city is known as Oslo. Her parents were Jens Schow Fabricius and Anna Margareta Greger. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to Tromsø. Her father became a naval commander there. They lived in a house rented from a local businessman named Johan Henrik Rye Holmboe.
Cora Sandel started learning to paint from Harriet Backer. When she was 25, she moved to Paris, France. She wanted to improve her art skills there. She lived among other Scandinavian artists in Paris from 1906 to 1921. In 1913, she married a Swedish sculptor named Anders Jönsson. They had one child together. In 1921, her family moved back to Sweden. She and Anders separated in 1922 and later divorced in 1926.
Becoming a Famous Writer
While living in Paris, Cora Sandel wrote short stories and sketches. These were published in Norway and helped her support her family. However, her first novel was not published until 1926. She was 46 years old at the time. This book was called Alberte and Jakob. It was the first part of her famous Alberta Trilogy.
Cora Sandel often used parts of her own life in her stories. Her books often show the challenges women faced in the 1800s. They explore how women struggled with society's strict rules. The Alberta trilogy follows a character named Alberta. It shows how she grows emotionally. It also looks at her relationships with men in her life. This includes her brother Jakob when she was a child. Later, it includes her lovers and fellow artists in Paris.
These novels quickly made her famous in Scandinavia. But people in English-speaking countries did not discover her work until the 1960s. By then, Sandel was living a quiet life in Sweden.
Later Life and Legacy
Even with her great success as a writer, Cora Sandel stayed private. She lived a quiet life and rarely used her real name. She lived in Sweden and only visited Norway sometimes. In 1957, she received an important award called the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. She passed away in 1974 in Uppsala, Sweden.
Her old home in Tromsø, called Mackgården, was built in 1838. Today, this building is home to the Perspektivet Museum. This museum opened in 1996. It brings together collections from two other museums: Troms Folkemuseum and Tromsø bymuseum.
Selected Works
- Alberte og Jakob, novel ("Alberta and Jacob", 1926)
- En blå sofa, short story collection ("A Blue Sofa", 1927)
- Alberte og friheten, novel ("Alberta and Freedom", 1931)
- Carmen og Maja, short story collection ("Carmen and Maja", 1932)
- Mange takk, doktor, short story collection ("Many Thanks, Doctor", 1935)
- Bare Alberte, novel ("Alberta Alone", 1939)
- Dyr jeg har kjent, short story collection ("Animals I've Known", 1945)
- Kranes konditori, novel ("Krane's Café", 1945–1946)
- Figurer på mørk bunn, short story collection ("Figures on a dark background", 1949)
- Translation of Colette's La Vagabonde (1952)
- Kjøp ikke Dondi, novel ("Don't Buy Dondi", 1958)
- Vårt vanskelige liv, short story collection ("Our Difficult Life", 1960)
- Barnet som elsket veier, short story collection with artwork ("The Child Who Loved Roads", 1973)
Awards
- Gyldendal's Endowment for 1937
See also
In Spanish: Cora Sandel para niños
- Sandel (disambiguation)
