Hanna Winsnes (1789–1872)

Hanna Winsnes, née Strøm, was born in Drammen, Norway, a daughter of Jens Henrich Strøm and his wife Karen Tyrholm Plathe. She married Paul Winsnes, a clergyman and member of the Storting (Norwegian Parliament), with whom she had eight children.

She became the first female novelist and the first cookbook author in Norway. Her first novel Grevens Datter (The Count's Daughter) was published in 1841, under the pseudonym "Hugo Schwarz." She followed this with 14 more novels, including the children's book Aftnerne paa Egelund (1852). Her first cookbook, Lærebog i de forskjellige Grene af Huusholdningen (Guide to the Various Branches of Housekeeping) from 1845, contained recipes for cooking and baking, and also included instruction on a wide variety of subjects such as livestock care, butchering meat, gardening, and making soap and candles. She was the great-grandmother of novelist Barbara Ring, who published a biography of her called For hundrede aar siden (A Hundred Years Ago). Hanna's great-great-granddaughter Hilde Diesen has also written about her.