[1][2][3][4][5] Rosa Carlén was born in Dalsland, the child of the Swedish writer Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807–1892) and the lawyer Jacob Reinhold Dalin (1799–1835), although her father died of gangrene before they had time to marry.

The year after Rosa Carlén's birth, she was adopted by her father's childless relatives, Jonas Bågenholm (1803–1864) and his wife Andriette Charlotta Ekelund (1808–1889), who lived on the farm Onsön in Dals-Ed.

[4] Rosa Carlén wrote several successful novels making her writing debut in 1861 with Agnes Tell.

Thereafter, using the pseudonym "author of Agnes Tell," she published the novel Bröllopet i Bränna, which inspired a 1926 film directed by Erik A.

After her husband's death, Rosa stopped writing and returned to her home town in Dalsland, where she died in 1883.