Edvin Adolphson
Who was the spouse of Harriet Bosse from 1927 to 1932?
Harriet Bosse Harriet Sofie Bosse ( 19 February 1878 – 2 November 1961 ) was a Swedish–Norwegian actress . A celebrity in her day , Bosse is now most commonly remembered as the third wife of the playwright August Strindberg . Bosse began her career in a minor company run by her forceful older sister Alma Fahlstrøm in Kristiania ( now Oslo , the capital of Norway ) . Having secured an engagement at the Royal Dramatic Theatre ( Dramaten ) , the main drama venue of Swedens capital Stockholm , Bosse caught the attention of Strindberg with her intelligent acting and exotic oriental appearance . After a whirlwind courtship , which unfolds in detail in Strindbergs letters and diary , Strindberg and Bosse were married in 1901 , when he was 52 and she 23 . Strindberg wrote a number of major roles for Bosse during their short and stormy relationship , especially in 1900–01 , a period of great creativity and productivity for him . Like his previous two marriages , the relationship failed as a result of Strindbergs jealousy , which some biographers have characterized as paranoid . The spectrum of Strindbergs feelings about Bosse , ranging from worship to rage , is reflected in the roles he wrote for her to play , or as portraits of her . Despite her real-life role as muse to Strindberg , she remained an independent artist . Bosse married Swedish actor in 1908 , and Swedish screen actor , director , and matinee idol Edvin Adolphson in 1927 . All three of her marriages ended in divorce after a few years , leaving her with a daughter by Strindberg and a son by Wingård . On retiring after a high-profile acting career based in Stockholm , she returned to her roots in Oslo . Early career . Bosse was born in Norways capital Kristiania , today called Oslo , as the thirteenth of fourteen children of Anne-Marie and Johann Heinrich Bosse . Her German father was a publisher and bookseller , and his business led to the familys alternating residence in Kristiania and Stockholm , the capital of Sweden . Bosse was to experience some confusion of national identity throughout her life , and to take the rail trip between the cities many times . A bold , independent child , she first made the journey alone when she was only six years old . Two of Bosses older sisters , Alma ( 1863–1947 ) and Dagmar ( 1866–1954 ) , were already successful performers when Harriet was a small child . Inspired by these role models , Harriet began her acting career in a Norwegian touring company run by her sister Alma and Almas husband Johan Fahlstrøm ( 1867–1938 ) . Invited to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet , the eighteen-year-old Harriet reported in a letter to her sister Inez that she had been paralysed by stage-fright before the premiere , but had then taken delight in the performance , the curtain-calls , and the way people stared at her in the street the next day . Alma was Harriets first and only—rather authoritarian—acting teacher . Their harmonious and sisterly teacher–pupil relationship became strained when Alma discovered that her husband Johan and Harriet were having an affair . Both Bosse parents were now dead , and Harriet , ordered by Alma to leave , used a modest legacy from her father to finance studies in Stockholm , Copenhagen , and Paris . The Paris stage—at that time in dynamic conflict between traditional and experimental production styles—was inspirational for Bosse and convinced her that the low-key realistic acting style in which she was training herself was the right choice . Returning to Scandinavia , she was hesitant as to whether she should carve out a career in Stockholm , with its greater opportunities , or in Kristiania , to which she had closer emotional ties . In spite of the disadvantage of speaking Swedish with a Norwegian accent , Bosse let herself be persuaded by her opera-singer sister Dagmar to try her luck in Stockholm . She applied for a place at the Royal Dramatic Theatre ( Dramaten ) , the main drama venue of Stockholm , governed by the conservative tastes of King Oscar II and his personal advisors . After working hard at elocution lessons to improve her Swedish , which was Dramatens condition for employing her , Bosse was eventually to become famous on the Swedish stage for her beautiful speaking voice and precise articulation . Having trained her Swedish to a high level , she was engaged by Dramaten in 1899 , where the sensation of the day was the innovative play Gustaf Vasa by August Strindberg . Marriage to August Strindberg . August Strindberg . Although Bosse was a successful professional , she is chiefly remembered as the third wife of Swedish dramatist August Strindberg ( 1849–1912 ) . Strindberg , an important influence on the development of modern drama , had become nationally known in the 1870s as an angry young socialist muckraker and had risen to fame with his satire on the Swedish establishment , The Red Room ( 1879 ) . In the 1890s , he had suffered a long and miserable psychotic interlude , known as the Inferno Crisis , and , emerging from this ordeal , he remained marked by it . He turned from naturalism to symbolism in his prolific literary output , and his convictions and interests at the turn of the twentieth century focused less on politics and more on theosophy , mysticism , and the occult . When Bosse met him in 1899–1900 , he was , at age 51 , at the height of his creative powers , his name red-hot on the stage . Strindberg had the reputation of a misogynist , something which all of his wives stoutly denied . Bosse wrote in an unpublished statement which she left to her daughter with Strindberg , Anne-Marie : During the years I knew and was married to Strindberg I saw only a completely natural , kind , honorable , faithful man—a gentleman . However , all of Strindbergs marriages were blighted by his jealousy and a sensitivity which has sometimes been considered paranoid and delusional . Courtship . Bosse later published Strindbergs letters from their courtship and marriage . Incidents narrated in those letters and in Bosses own interspersed comments have been analysed at length by biographers and psychiatrists , and have become part of the Strindberg legend . Even before their first meeting , Bosse had been inspired by the newness and freshness of Strindbergs pioneering plays ; an iconoclast and radical with two turbulent marriages already behind him presented an intriguing and irresistible mix to her . Strindberg was susceptible to strong , independent career women , as well as to dainty , delicate-looking young girls ; like his first and second wives—Siri von Essen and Frida Uhl—Bosse combined these qualities . He was entranced when he saw the dark , exotic-looking , petite twenty-two-year-old Bosse ( who was often cast in sprite roles or what were conceptualized as Oriental roles ) play her first major part , an impish Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream . He immediately picked her out as a suitable actress for the part of The Lady in his coming play To Damascus , and invited her to his bachelor establishment to discuss the role . At this famous first meeting , Strindberg , according to Bosses narrative of the event , met her at the door all smiles and charm . Offering her wine , flowers , and beautifully arranged fruit , he shared with her his fascination with alchemy , showing her a golden brown mixture he told her was gold he had made . When she got up to leave , Bosse claims Strindberg asked for the feather in her hat to use for writing his plays . Bosse gave it to him , and he used this feather , with a steel nib insert , to write all his dramas during their marriage . It is now in the Strindberg Museum in Stockholm . Strindberg wooed Bosse by sending her books about theosophy and the occult , by attempting to mould her mind , and by furthering her career . Throwing himself into writing plays with central parts he considered suitable for her , he tried to persuade her to act them , and the Dramaten management to cast her in them . Bosse asserts in her edition of the Letters that she tended to hang back , as did the management , being in agreement that she lacked the experience for major and complex roles . Strindberg , a power in the theatre , nevertheless often prevailed . The role of Eleonora in Easter ( 1901 ) , which intimidated Bosse by its sensitivity and delicacy , but which she finally undertook to play , turned out to be Bosses most successful and beloved role , and a turning-point in Bosses and Strindbergs relationship . They became engaged in March 1901 , during the rehearsals of Easter , in what in Bosses narrative may be the best-known incident of the Strindberg legend . Bosse relates how she went to see Strindberg to ask him to give the part to a more experienced actress , but he assured her she would be perfect for it . Then he placed his hands on my shoulders , looked at me long and ardently , and asked : Would you like to have a little child with me , Miss Bosse ? I made a curtsey and answered , as though hypnotized : Yes , thank you!—and we were engaged . Marriage and divorce . Bosse and Strindberg were married on 6 May 1901 . Strindberg insisted that Bosse bring none of her possessions to the home he had furnished for her , creating a setting in which to nurture and dominate her . In this setting , his taste in interior decoration was revealed to be Oscarian and old-fashioned , with pedestals , aspidistras , and dining-room furniture in hideous imitation of German renaissance , to Bosses modern judgment . Striving towards the life beyond , Strindberg explained , he could permit nothing in the apartment that would lead the thoughts towards the earthly and material . In her comments in the Letters , Bosse described with loyalty and affection Strindbergs protectiveness and his efforts to bring his young wife with him along his own spiritual paths ; nevertheless , she chafed under these efforts , pointing out that she herself , at 22 , was not even remotely finished with this world . Increasingly agoraphobic , Strindberg attempted to overcome his anxieties and allow his young wife the summer excursions she longed for . He planned sunny drives in hired victorias , but often the mystical Powers which governed him intervened . A crisis came as early as June 1901 , when Strindberg arranged , and then at the last moment called off , a honeymoon trip to Germany and Switzerland . Bosse wrote in the Letters that she had nothing to do but stay at home and choke down the tears while Strindberg attempted consolation by giving her a Baedeker to read a trip in . The cancelled journey was the beginning of the end . A crying , defiant Bosse went off by herself to the seaside resort Hornbæk in Denmark , a much shorter trip , but to her senses , a delightfully refreshing one . There , she was soon followed by Strindbergs letters , full of agonized remorse at having given her pain , and then by Strindberg himself , steeling himself to bear the social life Bosse relished . However , the relationship quickly foundered on jealousy and suspicion , as when Strindberg struck a photographer over the head with his stick , unable to endure any attention to Bosse . In August , when Bosse discovered that she was pregnant , even Strindbergs delight ( he was a fond parent of the four children of his previous marriages ) could not save a marriage full of distrust and accusation . This was illustrated in Strindbergs increasingly frantic letters to Bosse When their daughter Anne-Marie was born on 25 March 1902 , they were already living apart . For the sake of us both it is best that I do not return , wrote Bosse in a letter to Strindberg . A continuation of life together with suspicion of every word , every act of mine , would be the end of me . At her insistence , Strindberg began divorce proceedings . Strindbergs roles for Bosse . The relationship of Strindberg and Bosse was highly dramatic . Strindberg would lurch back and forth from adoration of Bosse as the regenerator of his creativity ( lovely , amiable , and kind ) to a wild jealousy ( calling her a small , nasty woman , evil , stupid , black , arrogant , venomous , and whore ) . His letters show that Bosse inspired several important characters in his plays , especially during the course of 1901 , and that he manipulated her by promising to pull strings so that she could play them . During the brief , intense , creative 1901 period , the roles Strindberg wrote as artistic vehicles for Bosse , or that were based on their relationship , reflect this combination of adoration and suspicion of every word , every act . Carla Waal counts eight minor and six major roles written for Bosse to act , or as portraits of her , several of them classics of Western theatre history . The major roles enumerated by Waal are The Lady in To Damascus ( 1900 ; mainly already written when Bosse and Strindberg met , but used between them to enhance their intimacy ) ; Eleonora in Easter ( 1901 ; modelled on Strindbergs sister Elisabeth , but intended for Bosse to star in ) ; Henriette in Crimes and Crimes ( 1901 ) ; Swan White in Swan White ( 1901 ) ; Christina in Queen Christina ( 1901 ) ; and Indras daughter in A Dream Play ( 1902 ) . The years refer to dates of publication ; Bosse never played in Swan White , even though Strindberg kept proposing it , and though she was many years later to describe this play as Strindbergs wedding present to her . Strindberg claimed that Queen Christina was an explanation of Bosses character as being that of an actress in real life , flirtatious and deceitful . In his influential Strindberg biography , Lagercrantz describes this play as a synopsis of the entire course of the Bosse–Strindberg marriage . He sees the courtiers as representing various stages of Strindbergs own emotions : Tott , in the first glow of love ; de la Gardie , betrayed but loyal ; Oxenstierna , who has rejected her . Each of the three men has words to speak which Strindberg himself had spoken to Bosse . A Dream Play is positioned at the median of Strindbergs series of portrayals of his own marriage , the Bosse role imbued with both light and darkness . With its associative dream structure , this play is a milestone of modernist drama , described by Strindberg as a lawless reflection of The Dreamers ( Strindbergs ) consciousness , limited only by his imagination which spins and weaves new patterns… on an insignificant basis of reality . Agnes , played by and representing Bosse , is the daughter of the Vedic god Indra , descending to earth to observe human life and bring its disappointments to the attention of her divine father . The Oriental aspect of the play is based on Bosses dark , exotic looks . Yet she is also drawn into mere humanity and into a claustrophobic marriage to The Lawyer , one of the versions of The Dreamer and , thereby , of Strindberg . Shut up indoors by a possessive husband , Agnes can not breathe ; she despondently watches the servant working to exclude light and air from the house by pasting insulating strips of paper along the windows edges . Recognizably , the insignificant basis of reality of Agnes marriage to The Lawyer is the frustration of the newly married Bosse , yearning for fresh air , sunshine , and travel but fobbed off with a Baedeker . Independence . Both before and after the divorce from Strindberg , Bosse was a Stockholm celebrity in her own right . Her independence and self-supporting status gained her a reputation for being strong-willed and opinionated , insisting on , and receiving , high pay and significant roles . She left Dramaten with its conventional repertoire and began working at Albert Ranfts Swedish Theatre , where she and the skillful but more modest actor ( Anders ) Gunnar Wingård ( 1878–1912 ) formed a popular co-star team . She travelled frequently , particularly for guest performances in Helsinki , leaving little Anne-Marie with Strindberg , a competent and affectionate father . In 1907 , Bosse made theatrical history as Indras daughter in Strindbergs epoch-making Dream Play . She and Strindberg met weekly for dinner at his house , and remained lovers until she severed connections in preparation for her marriage with Gunnar Wingård in 1908 . In 1909 the Wingårds had a son , Bo . This marriage was also brief , ending in divorce in 1912 . According to rumour , the cause of the divorce was Wingårds infidelity . However , Strindberg also heard gossip that Wingårds large debts threatened Bosses finances . In 1911 , a divorced woman with two children to care for and support , Bosse returned to Dramaten . Strindberg was at that time fatally ill with cancer ; he died on 14 May 1912 . 1912 was altogether a year of death and disaster for the Bosse and Strindberg families : Alma Fahlstrøms son Arne went down with the Titanic on 15 April ; Strindbergs first wife Siri von Essen died later the same month ; von Essens and Strindbergs daughter Greta , a promising young actress , was killed in a train crash in June ; and Bosses divorced husband Gunnar Wingård shot himself on 7 October . Strindbergs funeral was a national event . Gunnar Wingård , a popular and charming actor , was also the subject of public grief . Throughout these shattering events , which left both her children fatherless , Bosse kept up her busy schedule , apart from a few days off , distraught and grief-stricken , after Wingårds suicide . For months after it , she received anonymous letters and threatening phone-calls , blaming her for Wingårds depression and death . Bosses third marriage , 1927–32 , was to Edvin Adolphson ( 1893–1979 ) , fifteen years her junior . Adolphson had abandoned his stage career in order to become instead a film director and one of the best-known Swedish film actors , a ruggedly handsome matinée idol whose screen persona Nils Beyer referred to as a combination of apache , gangster and gigolo . Bosse made two films , ambitiously shot and directed and based on novels by well-known writers . The artistic achievement of Sons of Ingmar ( 1919 ) has been highly praised . Directed by and co-starring Victor Sjöström , it was based on a novel by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf ; many years later , Ingmar Bergman referred to Sons of Ingmar as a magnificent , remarkable film and acknowledged his own debt to Sjöström . Bosse , who played the female lead Brita , called Sons of Ingmar the only worthwhile Swedish film I was involved in . However , the film failed to give her career the kind of fresh start that the Swedish film industry had given Edvin Adolphson , and it was seventeen years before she made another film . This was Bombi Bitt and I ( 1936 ) , her only talkie , based on Fritiof Nilsson Piratens popular first novel with the same title and directed by Gösta Rodin . Bombi Bitt was a successful , though more lightweight , production with a smaller Bosse role ( Franskan ) . Retirement . After many years of ambitious and successful free-lance acting , Bosse found her options narrowing in the 1930s . The Great Depression brought her economic hardship , and , even though she looked younger than her age , most important womens roles were out of her age range . Her technique was still often praised , but also sometimes perceived as old-fashioned and mannered , in comparison with the more ensemble-oriented style of the times . Finding herself unneeded by any Swedish repertory theatre , she only managed to return as a member of Dramaten by means of skillful persuasion and pointed reminders of her long history there . A humble employee at a humble salary , she played only fifteen roles , all minor , during her last ten years at Dramaten , 1933–43 . Retiring from the stage during World War II , Bosse considered moving back to Norways capital Oslo , the home of her childhood and youth . Both her children had settled there . The move was delayed for ten years , during which she travelled whenever possible , and when it took place in 1955 , she perceived it to be a mistake . Her brother Ewalds death in 1956 left her the only survivor of the fourteen children of Anne-Marie and Johann Heinrich Bosse . How I long desperately for Stockholm , she wrote to a friend in 1958 . My whole life is there . She became chronically melancholy , enduring failing health and bitter memories of the final phase of her career at Dramaten . She died on 2 November 1961 in Oslo . Bosse always guarded her privacy , so much so that the memoir she wrote of her life with Strindberg was deemed to be too uninterestingly discreet to be publishable . References . - Beyer , Nils ( 1945 ) . Skådespelare . Stockholm : Kooperative Förbundets bokförlag . - Brandell , Gunnar ( 1950 ) . Strindbergs infernokris . Stockholm : Bonniers . - Lagercrantz , Olof ( 1979 ; translated from Swedish by Anselm Hollo , 1984 ) . August Strindberg . London : Faber and Faber . - Martinus , Eivor ( 2001 ) . Strindberg and Love . Oxford : Amber Lane Press . - Paulson , Arvid ( ed . and translated , 1959 ) . Letters of Strindberg to Harriet Bosse . New York : Thomas Nelson and Sons . - Strindberg on Drama and Theatre : A Source Book . ( Selected , translated and edited by Egil Törnqvist and Birgitta Steene , 2007 ) . Amsterdam University Press . - Waal , Carla ( 1990 ) . Harriet Bosse : Strindbergs Muse and Interpreter . Carbondale and Edwardsville : Southern Illinois Univ . Press . External links . - The Strindberg Museum in Stockholm