Jacobine Camilla Collett (born Wergeland)

Camilla Wergeland grew up in Eidsvoll parsonagetogether with her brother Henrik Wergeland. As a child she was often sad and bitter, and often alone.

Her brother was not the only cultural greatness in Camilla Wergeland closest circuit. Her love for the poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven was both unhappy and lifelong. She was married to lawyer Peter Jonas Collett in 1841 and stayed married to him until his death, she was now 38 years and had four sons.

Camilla Collett’s authorship starts around 1840 and continue until her death fifty years later. Most of her work consists of articles, letters, essays and serials.

However, it is as a writer of fiction that she is most remembered. "The Amtmands daughters" that she published anonymously is considered Norway's first purpose novel. Here Collett sheds the light on the tragic fates woman and girls faced asa result of the social pressures and conventions they where exposed to. Some of the inspiration for this subject came perhaps from Collett’s sister, who was forced into an unhappy marriage.

According to Bjørnson, it was Camilla Collett who introduced women's rights movement in Norway and she was eventually elected an honorary member of Norwegian Association for Women. In 1877 she published her first book under her own name "From the Encampment of the Mutes".  Here she criticizes famous Norwegian authors for their suppressing attitudes towards women in their writing.

Other famous works by Camilla Collett are "In the long nights" and a series of books called "Reached the last blade".