Sigrid Undset

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) began her writing career while working as a secretary to support her mother and sisters. The publication of her first novel allowed her to abandon office work, and she left her native Norway for Rome, where she met and eventually married a Norwegian painter. Jenny, originally published in Norway in 1911, marked Undset's breakthrough as a writer. A few years later her marriage ended, and she withdrew to a home in rural Norway, where she began work on her medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928.