Hanna Butenschøn was daughter of a clergyman, was born in Holt, and married Consul General Nils August Andresen Butenschøn in 1871, actively joined in the ‘gauntlet dispute’ (part of the Nordic controversy about morality in the 1880s) by writing “En Quinderøst i Handskespørgsmålet. Aabent Brev til Prof. Monrad”, 1886.
Her debut work of fiction, the novel Ud i lifvet, was published in 1890, and further novels and plays were published subsequently under the pseudonym Helene Dickmar. Her final work was the memoirs Barneøine, 1923. Hanna Butenschøn was also a literary critic and wrote “Har Henrik Ibsen i Hedda Gabler skildret virkelige Kvinder”, 1891, and “Henrik Ibsen: Bygmester Solness”, 1895.
