Home > The Master Builder Summary & Study Guide > Henrik Ibsen Biography
The Master Builder | Author Biography
Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, in Skien, Norway, to Knud (a businessman) and Marichen (Altenburg) Ibsen. His wealthy family was thrown into poverty in 1834 when his father lost his store. As a result, Ibsen was forced to leave school at age fifteen and accept a position as a pharmacist’s assistant. The humiliation his family suffered as they sold off most of their property to pay off debts became a dynamic in his later plays, especially in A Doll House (1879) and John Gabriel Borkman (1896). Fire, which was a constant threat to Skien’s wooden shacks, was...
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