Inger Christensen Views
Inger Christensen, who has died aged 73, was one of the most significant European poets of the 20th century. She was Danish, and it is a misfortune for any great writer to be confined to a language with few readers, but her work, like that of her compatriots Hans Christian Andersen and Sooslash;ren Kierkegaard, may be destined to find admirers in many languages.
Inger Christensen was born in the town of Vejle on the eastern coast of Jutland. Her father, Adolf Emanuel Christensen, was a tailor. After graduating from Vejle Gymnasium in 1954, Christensen moved to Copenhagen, enrolling in medical school, but later withdrew for financial reasons. She then went to rÅrhus, where she studied at Teachers' College, receiving her teacher certificate in 1958. During this period, she published poems in the journal Hvedekorn. The poet and critic Poul Borum (1934-1996), whom she married in 1959, guided her early writing. Christensen and Borum divorced in 1976.
Inger Christensen was born on Jan. 16, 1935, in Vejle, in the Jutland region of Denmark. Her father was a tailor; her mother, a former domestic, later worked in a meat-packing plant. Planning to become a doctor, Ms. Christensen enrolled in medical school in Copenhagen but later withdrew for financial reasons. She trained as a schoolteacher instead, earning a degree, with a concentration in German and mathematics, from the Aarhus College of Education.
Inger Christensen (1935 ndash;2009), born in Vejle Denmark, was one of Europe's leading contemporary experimentalists. Her works include poetry, fiction, drama, and essays. She received numerous international literary awards, including the Nordic Prize of the Swedish Academy, the Grand Prix des Biennales Internationale de Po*eacute;sie, the Austrian Sate Prize for Literature, and the German Siegfried Unseld Award.
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