Margareta Momma

Anna Margareta Momma née von Bragner (1702–1772), was a Swedish publisher, managing editor and journalist. She was the writer of the political essaypaper Samtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga, and the editor of the Stockholm Gazette. Chronologically, she may be counted as the first female journalist in Sweden.

Margareta Momma was born in the Netherlands, possible as a French Huguenot descendant. In 1735, she married the Swedish publisher Peter Momma (d. 1772), himself of a Swedish family of Dutch origin, and settled in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. She was the mother of Petter (1738-1758), Wilhelm (1740-1772) and Elsa Fougt. Peter Momma was the publisher and editor of popular papers such as the Stockholm Gazette (1742) and the Stockholms Weckoblad (1745), and she played an active part in his business.

Margareta Momma are identified as the author behind the French language essay paper Samtal emellan Argi Skugga och en obekant Fruentimbers Skugga (English: 'Conversation between the Shadow of Argus and the unfamiliar Shadow of a Female'), or popularly Samtal (Conversation), which has become her most known work. As a female journalist, she was rare in Europe and possibly the first identifiable one in Sweden. The essay aroused great attention in contemporary Sweden, but the author was anonymous and unknown during her own lifetime. The essay was published in ten issues in connection with the Riksdag of 1738-1739. Essay papers was a new form of media in contemporary Europe, and hers was among the first to introduce this media form in Sweden. The paper was contemporary to similar publications in Sweden such as Skuggan Af den döda Argus (The Death Shadow of Argus), Samtal, I The Dödas Rijke, Emellan Den Sedo-Lärande Mercurius (Conversation, In the Kingdom of the Dead, With the Instructive Mercurius) and Den Swänska Argus, and was likely inspired by them.

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