To talk about Ibsen in the world, you have to start with Ibsen's fame in his own time. At the end of the 19th century, Henrik Ibsen was the world's most famous playwright, a super celebrity and a tourist attraction.
Many things led to this enormous success for Henrik Ibsen, not least his own business acumen. But conditions that initially gave him less income also turned out to be favorable.
Free to publish and perform Ibsen abroad
In Ibsen's time, before 1886, there were no agreements between countries that guaranteed playwrights and authors income from performances and publications of their works abroad. Theaters and publishers were largely free to use texts by foreign authors, and for many years it was practically free to perform Ibsen's plays. It was therefore very lucrative for theater and publishing managers to stage or publish Ibsen's plays. Ibsen did not earn much from this at the time, but it meant that the plays were both seen and read by a great many people.
This was particularly true in Germany, where, for example, Samfundets støtter (1877), which was the first of his contemporary dramas, was performed simultaneously in as many as five different theatres in Berlin, as well as in Munich, Copenhagen and Odense. Only a few months after publication, three different German translations were available.
A gigantic and successful marketing campaign
The fact that it was free to publish and perform Ibsen abroad, and the fact that his plays were also popular and attracted a wide audience, laid the foundations for the enormous sales success he eventually achieved and for the popularity he enjoyed and retained for the rest of his life, right up to the present day.
What was initially negative for Ibsen turned out to be a gigantic and successful marketing campaign that created expectations and demand for the upcoming releases.
No one sold more books than Henrik Ibsen
In Norway, too, the next publication from Henrik Ibsen was eagerly awaited. In a 2016 interview with forskning.no, historian Narve Fulsås from the University of Tromsø describes the day a new Ibsen book arrived in the capital:
All the bookshops in Kristiania had their shipping teams on the pier. The publications often arrived in December, when there was ice, bad weather and shutters. The envoys could stand for hours waiting for the Danish steamship, which transported the Gyldendal goods. When the ship had passed Drøbak, the stores were called so that impatient customers could be notified. Editors and literary reviewers had also turned up. Many customers had pre-ordered the book and were very impatient. Women with an interest in literature had invited friends to a reading on the same day.
The enormous demand led to sales that no other author could have dreamed of. You could say that Ibsen's books were printed and sold in about twice the number of copies as his contemporaries Bjørnson, Kielland and Lie. The same was true abroad. No other author in the world sold as many books as Henrik Ibsen.
Just as popular today
In the 19th century, Henrik Ibsen from Skien was the most sought-after author in the world. He has retained this status continuously to this day. His plays have been translated into 78 languages and he is read, performed and reinterpreted on every continent every day.
Sources: Reviews of the books "Ibsen in Context" and "The Scandinavian Moment in World Literature" on forskning.no and the Center for Ibsen Studies website at uio.no
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