LENNGREN, ANNA MARIA

ne Malmstedt born June 18, 1754, Uppsala, Sweden died March 8, 1817, Stockholm Swedish poet whose Neoclassical satires and pastoral idylls show a balance and moderation characteristic of the Enlightenment period and are still read for their gaiety and elegance. Educated by her father, a lecturer at the University of Uppsala, Lenngren began to publish poetry at age 18. In 1780 she married Carl Lenngren, founder (with J.H. Kellgren) and later editor of the influential Stockholmsposten, to which she thereafter contributed anonymously. Her best work was written in the 1790s. Her most famous idylls are Den glada festen (1796; The Merry Festival) and Pojkarne (1797; The Boys). Of her satires, Portraiterne (1796) and Grefvinnans besk (1800; The Countess's Visit) are especially fine. Although, as she says, she was seldom far from home, she combined clear-sighted knowledge of the world with kindly tolerance of its foibles. Her poetry, collected in 1819, is classical in form and remarkable for its restraint and purity of style and diction.