Background
Alving was born in Ytterselö, Södermanland on 23 October 1874.
Alving was born in Ytterselö, Södermanland on 23 October 1874.
She was educated at Palmgrenska Samskolan in Stockholm where she matriculated in 1893.
Her parents were Captain August Lönn (1837–1920) and Erika Charlotta Persdotter Jonsson. From 1898 to 1905 she was married to the statistician Sven Norrman and from 1906 to the linguist and educator Hjalmar Alving. Alving travelled to Norway, Denmark and other European countries.
She was a correspondent at the Greek consulate in Malmø from 1894 to 1898.
Thereafter she worked for the journal Strix in Stockholm until 1901, signing her articles Maja X. As a novelist, she used the pen name Ulrik Uhland but also used Fanny Norrman and Fanny Alving. Alving was one of the few Swedes of the day who introduced ordinary local people into her stories.
Her crime novel Josefssons på Drottninggatan (The Josefssons on Queen"s Street) not only includes people from Stockholm but features Sweden"s first woman detective, Jullan Eriksson.