Marie Eve

Marie Eve was the pseudonym/pen name for the Austrian writer Frida Uhl. Born Maria Friederike Cornelia Uhl, in Mondsee, Austria, in 1872. The daughter of Friedrich Uhl, author, theatre critic, and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Wiener Zeitung. Frida Uhl was educated at convent schools in Görz, Bad Reichenhall, London och Paris.

In 1892 she moved to Berlin, Germany, and became literature correspondent for the Wiener Zeitung. She was fluent in French, English and German, and enjoyed socializing with artist and writers.

In January 1893 she met the Swedish playwright and author August Strindberg. They married in May at the German island Helgoland and later the same year had a daughter, Kerstin. Frida Uhl introduced Strindberg to London's literary world and promoted his plays and writings for the years to come.

When Strindberg returned to Sweden, Frida Uhl met with German playwright Frank Wedekind, became pregnant and gave birth to her son Friedrich in 1897.

Together with German poet Hanns Heinz Ewers, she founded the first Berlin cabaret in 1900. She was closely acquainted with several members of the literary group Jung-Wien, such as the poet Peter Altenberg, the essayist Richard Schaukal and the journalist Karl Kraus. Bored with the Jung-Wien camaraderie, Frida Uhl was ready for a change for the better and teamed up with the Austrian aristocrat Werner von Oesteren. After a few wild years and a couple of suicide attempts she left for London, where she succeeded in becoming an art dealer and opened a cabaret, theatre club called the Cave of the Golden Calf on 9 Heddon Street, at Regent Street.

In 1914 she took off for the United States of America, where she was offered a job at Fox Film developing European scripts with the Russian writer Mikhail Petrovich Artzybashev. Along with plans of promoting the recently deceased August Strindbergs writings. At least two of his plays she, as Marie Eve, transformed into her own screenplays, "The Death Dance" and "The Golden Shower".