Torfhildur Þorsteinsdóttir

She went to Reykjavík at age 17 and studied there and in Copenhagen and worked as a private teacher[3] before marrying Jakob Hólm when she was 29.

[4] After working as a teacher for a number of years, she returned to Iceland in 1889 and two years later was granted a writer's pension by the Althing, the first woman to receive such artistic support; there was disagreement about the appropriateness of the award and it was reduced and ultimately made part of her widow's pension.

After her return to Iceland she edited two literary journals, Draupnir and Dvöl, in which her short fiction and two later novels appeared,[4] and a children's magazine, Tíbrá.

[2] Her writing shows both romantic and realist traits; some of her short stories are fables and allegories, but others deal with contemporary life, with the importance of women's education as a recurring theme.

[3] As a historical novelist, she is credited with giving the genre "its most capable treatment" among Icelandic authors.