Ellen Frederikke Raae grew up in a family of teachers and lived in Argentina from 1908 to 1909. She was married from 1910 to 1923 to the editor Alfred Raae and completed a degree in 1926, subsequently working on the dictionary Ordbog over det danske Sprog (Dictionary of the Danish Language).
Her debut novel Den anden Kind (N), 1938, which she later struck off her list of works, was followed by a series of realist novels about the journey from the provinces to the big city and women’s often shocking encounter with men and sexuality. Bag den grønne Laage (N), 1942, is about oppressive childhood in the provinces, while Frigørelsen (N), 1949, recounts the story of the mental and physical journey of two women between the past and the present and their symbolic union into a single female figure. In Gæsten (N), 1955, she accuses man head on.
