page_title: Moa Martinson
section_title: Kitchen maid and pantry chef
hierarchical_section_title: Moa Martinson / Early life / Kitchen maid and pantry chef
caption_attribution_description: The writer "Moa Martinsson trappa" in Norrköping, Sweden.
context_page_description: Moa Martinson, born Helga Maria Swarts sometimes spelt Swartz, was one of Sweden's most noted authors of proletarian literature. Her ambition was to change society with her authorship and to portray the conditions of the working class, and also the personal development of women. Her works were about motherhood, love, poverty, politics, religion, urbanization and the hard living conditions of the working-class woman.
context_section_description: At the age of fifteen, she trained to become a pantry chef; at the time, she was the youngest in that profession in Sweden. During the summer of 1906, she worked as a kitchen maid in the main restaurant at the Norrköping Exhibition of Art and Industry. Situated at the top of Syltberget ("Sylt Hill"), the restaurant was accessed by an 80-steps stairway. In Kungens rosor (The King's Roses), Martinsson recounts her work in the restaurant and mentions the stairs. The novel got its name from a conversation that she had at the exhibition with King Oscar II of Sweden on 3 July 1906. The conversation revolved around flowers, which the King said that he felt had souls. As of 2016, the stairs remain and have been named "Moa Martinson's Stairs".
   "In the midst of summer, she walks down the eighty steps. Counting them out loud one after the other, even though she knows very well their number. It is cloudy, almost dark, even though it is only July. The bright nights are waning. The scents of roses and honeysuckles waft around her. She stops, enthralled by the silence and beauty of the summer night. The noise from the day's bustle still lingers in her ears."
  — From The King's Roses
  In 1906, Martinson moved to Stockholm in the hope of getting a job, but this turned out to be harder than she expected. During the financial depression of 1907–1909, she had to move back to Norrköping. At this time, she followed events related to concerns about the labour market. This period of Martinson's life had a significant impact on her political engagement. She also wrote poems and sent a collection to a notary interested in literature, but her work was rejected. She later described the poems as "lofty", since that was how she thought such texts should be written.
caption: Moa Martinsson's Stairs in Sylten, Norrköping
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