Full Name: Henrik Johan Ibsen
Nickname: Henrik Ibsen

Father: Knud Henriksen Ibsen
Mother: Marichen Cornelia Altenburg
Mistress: Else Sophie Jensdatter (one child in 1846)
Wife: Suzannah Thoresen (m. 19-Jun-1858, one son)
Son: Sigurd Ibsen (b. 23-Dec-1859)

Date of Birth: 20 March 1828
Birth Place: Skien, Norway
Date of Death: 23 May 1906 (aged 78)
Death Place: Christiania (Oslo), Norway
Cause of Death: Stroke

Remains: Buried, Cemetery of Our Saviour, Oslo, Norway
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Play Writer, Great Dramatist
Nationality: Norwegian

Notable Work(s): Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), The Wild Duck (1884), Hedda Gabler (1890)

The great dramatist and poet Henrik Johan Ibsen was an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of the modern realistic drama, was born on 20 March 1828 in Skien, Norway. His father, Knud Ibsen, one in a long line of sea captains, had been born in Skien in 1797 and had married Marichen Cornelia Martie Altenburg, the daughter of a German merchant, in 1825. His plays were considered scandalous in much of society at the time when Victorian values of family life and propriety were still very much the norm, and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many a facade, which the society of the time did not want to see.


Early life: His father was a successful merchant. When Ibsen was eight, his father's business failed, which was a shattering blow to the family. Ibsen left home at age fifteen and spent six years as a pharmacist's (one who prepares and sells drugs that are ordered by doctors) assistant in Grimstad, Norway, where he wrote his first play. In 1850 he moved to Christiania (later known as Oslo), Norway, to prepare for university examinations to study at the University of Christiania. Living in the capital, he made friends with other writers and artistic types. One of these friends, Ole Schulerud, paid for the publication of Ibsen's first play Catilina, which failed to get much notice. In 1851 he became assistant stage manager of a new theatre in Bergen, Norway, where part of his job was to write one new play a year. Although these plays were mostly unsuccessful, Ibsen gained valuable theatre experience.

Ibsen returned to Christiania in 1857, where he spent the worst period of his life. His plays either failed or were rejected, and he went into debt. This proved to be a frustrating venture for him, with others claiming that he mismanaged the theatre and calling for his ouster. Despite his difficulties, Ibsen found time to write Love's Comedy, a satirical look at marriage, in 1862. He left Norway in 1864, spending the next twenty-seven years in Italy and Germany. He changed his appearance, his habits, and even his handwriting. He became distant, secretive, and desperate to protect himself from the real and imagined hostility of others.

Personal Life: Unlike many other writers and poets, Ibsen had a long and seemingly happy marriage to Suzannah Daae Thoresen. The couple wed in 1858 and welcomed their only child, son Sigurd, the following year. Ibsen also had a son from an earlier relationship. He had fathered a child with a maid in 1846 while working as an apprentice. While he provided some financial support, Ibsen never met the boy.

Back to Norway: In 1891, Ibsen returned to Norway as a literary hero. He may have left as a frustrated artist, but he came back as an internationally known playwright. For much of his life, Ibsen had lived an almost reclusive existence. But he seemed to thrive in the spotlight in his later years, becoming a tourist attraction of sorts in Christiania. He also enjoyed the events held in his honour in 1898 to mark his seventieth birthday.

List of Ibsen’s Works:
The great dramatist and poet Henrik Ibsen was an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was able to create a new era, George Bernard Shaw called it Ensenism later. Here list of his works...
  • Catiline (1850)
  • The Burial Mound (written in 1850, revised version published in 1854)
  • Norma (1851)
  • St. John’s Night (written in 1852, first published in 1909)
  • Lady Inger (written in 1854, first published in 1857)
  • The Feast at Solhaug (1856)
  • Olaf Liljekrans (written in 1856, first published in 1902)
  • The Vikings at Helgeland (1858)
  • Love’s Comedy (1862)
  • The Pretenders (1863)
  • Brand (1866)
  • Peer Gynt (1867)
  • The League of Youth (1869)
  • Poems (1871)
  • Emperor and Galilean (1873)
  • Pillars of Society (1877)
  • A Doll’s House (1879)
  • Ghosts (1881)
  • An Enemy of the People (1882)
  • The Wild Duck (1884)
  • Rosmersholm (1886)
  • The Lady from the Sea (1888)
  • Hedda Gabler (1890)
  • The Master Builder (1892)
  • Little Eyolf (1894)
  • John Gabriel Borkman (1896)
  • When We Dead Awaken (1899)
Death: On 23 May 1906, Ibsen died in his home at Arbins gade 1 in Christiania (now Oslo) after a series of strokes in March 1900. When, on 22 May, his nurse assured a visitor that he was a little better, Ibsen spluttered his last words "On the contrary" ("Tvertimod!"). He died the following day at 2:30 P.M.