Waldemar Ager, Realism, and Woman Suffrage

Abstract:Waldemar Ager is recognized as an important literary figure in Norwegian-American history. As editor and manager of the Norwegian language weekly Reform, Ager connected with Norwegian-American readers across the United States in the early twentieth century. As a novelist, he explored the social conditions of Norwegian Americans. Ager was also a progressive who found inspiration for his social and political convictions in the Norwegian and Norwegian-American literature he cherished. Within the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, community he was recognized as an important civic leader. On 17 July 1912, Waldemar Ager addressed a meeting of the Eau Claire Political Equality League. This article explores the pro-suffrage views adopted by Ager through, in part, the realism present in the Norwegian literature of Henrik Ibsen and the literature of Camilla Collett.