Then: Writer

Later: Cultural Practitioner

Elsa Gress participated in the Danish resistance during World War II and captured the experience in her debut essay collection, Strejftog (“Raids,” 1947). At the Salzburg Seminar in 1950, she met American literary critic R.W.B. Lewis, and later moved with him to the US. Her interest in the US prompted her essay collection Nye striejftog (“New Raids,” 1957), which included critical accounts of the McCarthy era. Gress became a prominent figure in Danish literary circles and was among the first major debaters of women’s issues in the post-war period. She also founded the Decenter cultural center in Denmark, which attracted artists from around the globe.