Wägner, Elin

Wägner, Elin (ā`lĭn vĕg`nĕr), 1882–1949, Swedish novelist. Wägner was a leading feminist of her day. In early works such as Pennskaftet [the penholder] (1910), she deals with the social, economic, and political questions confronting self-supporting urban women. She also founded and edited a feminist weekly and later, in two semiautobiographical novels, recorded the history of the Swedish women's movement in terms of her own experience. Her later works, including her best-known novel, Åsa-Hanna (1918), and the family saga Silverforsen [the silver rapids] (1924), concentrate more heavily on religious and moral questions. In Alarm Clock (1941), she argued for radical change from a doomed patriarchy.