Eli Birgit "Ella" Anker was a Norwegian magazine journalist, newspaper correspondent, playwright and pamphleteer.

Personal life

She was born at Sagatun Folk High School

Sagatun folk high school

Sagatun Folk High School was a folk high school in Hamar, Norway.The first of its kind in Norway, it was founded by Herman Anker and Olaus Arvesen in 1864. The school building was erected around 1865, and drawn by architect Emil Victor Langlet. The school was disestablished in 1892, having been...

 in Vang, Hedmark

Vang, Hedmark

Vang is a former municipality in Hedmark county, Norway.Vang was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . The city of Hamar was separated from Vang in 1849. Furnes was separated from Vang in 1891...

 to Herman Anker (1839–1896) and Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 citizen Marie Elisabeth "Mix" Bojsen (1843–1892). She was a sister of Katti Anker Møller

Katti Anker Møller

Katti Anker Møller was a Norwegian feminist, children's rights advocate, and a pioneer of reproductive rights. She is known to posterity as the "advocate of mothers."...

 and sister-in-law of Kai Møller, granddaughter of Peter Martin Anker

Peter Martin Anker (politician)

Peter Martin Anker was a Norwegian politician.He was a son of wholesaler Niels Anker . He was also a third cousin of Karen Anker, Johan Caspar Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg's wife. Together with Thrine Gløersen he had the children Nils Anker, Herman Anker, Christian August Anker and Dikka Møller...

, niece of Nils Anker

Nils Anker

Nils Anker was a Norwegian politician.He was a son of politician Peter Martin Anker. He was a brother of Herman Anker, Christian August Anker and Dikka Møller, uncle of Katti Anker Møller, Ella Anker and Johan Anker and granduncle of Øyvind Anker, Synnøve Anker Aurdal, Peter Martin Anker and Tove...

, Christian August Anker and Dikka Møller, first cousin of Johan Anker

Johan Anker

Johan August Anker was a Norwegian sailor and yacht designer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics, in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and in the 1928 Summer Olympics....

 and aunt of Tove Mohr, Øyvind Anker

Øyvind Anker

-Personal life:He was born in Frankfurt am Main as a son of engineer Nils Botvid Anker and artist and pianist Gudrun Nilssen . He grew up in Vestre Aker and Lillehammer. He was a brother of Synnøve Anker Aurdal, and through her a brother-in-law of Ludvig Eikaas. Through another sister Ella he was...

, Synnøve Anker Aurdal and Peter Martin Anker

Peter Martin Anker (diplomat)

Peter Martin Anker was a Norwegian diplomat. He worked for the League of Nations, Red Cross and United Nations before, during and after the Second World War. He was then an ambassador in different European, Asian and African countries from 1951 to 1973...

.

From December 1892 to 1906 she was married to Vilhelm Dunker Dons (1868–1908), a grandson of Vilhelmine Ullmann. Through her husband's sisters she was a sister-in-law of Nils Kjær

Nils Kjær

Nils Kjær was a Norwegian playwright, short story writer, essayist, literary critic and theatre critic.-Personal life:Kjær was born in Holmestrand as the son of Nils Henrik Kjær and Christine Smestad...

 and Jens Thiis

Jens Thiis

Jens Thiis was a Norwegian art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director. He was conservator at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim 1895 and director at Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo 1908–1941.He was unusual alert to tendencies of his time...

. She died in April 1958 in Oslo.

Career

She finished her secondary education at Ragna Nielsen's school in Kristiania

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 in 1887 and took the examen philosophicum

Examen philosophicum

Examen philosophicum, often abbreviated ex. phil., is a course at certain Norwegian universities that functions as an introductory course within philosophy and scientific method...

 in 1888. In 1892 she was a the first female board member of the Norwegian Students' Society, but the whole board was excluded for agitating against the Norwegian flag

Flag of Norway

The flag of Norway is red with an indigo blue Scandinavian cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark.- History :...

 with union badge

Union between Sweden and Norway

The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....

. She was active in political parties, but from the Liberal Party she joined the Labour Democrats

Radical People's Party

Radical People's Party was a political party in Norway, originally founded as the Labour Democrats . The party took part in its first elections in 1906. At that time the party was led by Johan Castberg...

 in 1890, then the Social Democratic Labour Party

Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway

The Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway was a Norwegian political party in the 1920s. Following the Labour Party's entry into the Comintern in 1919, its right wing left the party to form the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1921...

 in 1926 and the Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

 in 1927. From 1902 to 1904 she worked as a private secretary for Liberal Party politician Wollert Konow (H), who was also married to a maternal aunt of hers.

After her husband's death she worked as subeditor for the weekly magazine Hver 8de Dag, and a Dagbladet

Dagbladet

Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....

correspondent in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. From 1910 to 1920 she was a correspondent in London for several newspapers, including Dagbladet and Verdens Gang

Verdens Gang (1868-1923 newspaper)

Verdens Gang is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1868 to 1923.It was established as a weekly magazine in 1868, later expanded to three issues a week, and was issued daily from 1885. It was the most widespread political newspaper in Norway for many years, and had considerable...

. From 1923 she worked in the women's magazine Norges Kvinder. She co-founded the Anglo-Norse Society

Anglo-Norse Society in London

The Anglo-Norse Society in London is a society based in England for advancing the education of the citizens of Britain and Norway about each other's country and way of life....

 in 1918 and founded the Anglo-Norse Society in Oslo

Anglo-Norse Society in Oslo

The Anglo-Norse Society in Oslo is a society based in Oslo, Norway for advancing civil relations between Britain and Norway.The Society was founded in 1921 on the initiative of Ella Anker, who as a newspaper correspondent in London had been a co-founder of the Anglo-Norse Society in London in...

  in 1921; for this she was decorated with the Order of the British Empire

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

.

Anker had a sizeable authorship, and agitated for many issues. She was an adherent to Spiritism

Spiritism

Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...

 and Christianity, and wrote books such as Personlighetens liv efter døden ('The Life of Personality After Death', 1911), Ukjendte kræfter ('Unknown Forces', 1912) and Til vern om den kristne moral ('To Guard the Christian Moral', 1950). She also supported the controversial Norwegian claim to "Erik the Red's Land

Erik the Red's Land

Erik the Red's Land was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlements in Greenland in the 10th century...

", and wrote several publications about this: the books Grønland for Norge ('Greenland for Norway', 1923) and Norges rett til Eirik Raude's land ('Norway's Right to Erik the Red's Land', 1931), and also the piece in Norges Kvinder in 1931, Det norske folks undergang på Grønland under danskestyret ('The Downfall of the Norwegian People of Greenland under Danish Rule'), and the play Eirik Raude about Erik the Red

Erik the Red

Erik Thorvaldsson , known as Erik the Red , is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson, he therefore...

. Another play which is remembered today is Olavsbilæte (1923). She also agitated for peace between nations, child benefit

Child benefit

Child benefit is a social security payment disbursed to the parents or guardians of children. Child benefit is means-tested in some countries.-Australia:...

, for giving wage to mothers (1928's book Mødrelønn) and total prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

. Her 1936 book about her father and his folk high school, Sagatun. Herman Ankers liv og virke, was reissued in 1950.