Ellen Key is one of the most important figures in the "Modern Breakthrough," the cultural renaissance in Scandinavia at the turn of the twentieth century. A prolific essayist, she took an active part in Swedish cultural and political life from the 1880s until her death in 1926. She also knew many of the prominent writers and artists of the period both in Sweden and abroad and helped foster dialogues among them.

Never one to shun controversy, Key wrote most extensively on questions of gender and sexuality. Although she did not marry and supported herself through writing and teaching, Key argued that a woman's most important work lay in motherhood and the home. While she published widely on women's rights and gender roles, education and child care, and women and world peace, she additionally addressed in her writings the subjects of philosophy and aesthetics; contemporary literature; and socialism and the...