Silfverstolpe's father, Robert Montgomery, was commissioned into the French army in 1754 and by 1777 had achieved the rank of
colonel. Serving in the
County of Nyland and Tavastehus, in modern-day
Finland, he married Charlotte Rudbeck in 1781. Rudbeck died in April 1782, two months after their daughter was born; Montgomery returned to Sweden with his daughter in 1783. Montgomery was held in high regard by
Gustav III at the time of his return. That changed in 1789 when he was sentenced to death for his involvement in the
Anjala conspiracy—the sentence was not carried out and he remained in prison until his release in 1793. Silfverstolpe was raised by her maternal grandmother in
Edsberg, Sollentuna during the period of her father's imprisonment. Silfverstolpe was married to David Gudmund Silfverstolpe, a colonel in the Swedish
General Staff, in 1807; the marriage was not a happy one. Her husband suffered from repeated bouts of "mjältsjuka"—an illness that, though then associated with the
spleen ("mjälte" being the Swedish word for the organ), might now be diagnosed as
depression. The couple moved to
Uppsala in 1812 and Silfverstolpe was widowed in 1819. In 1820, Silfverstolpe, inspired by the prominent women of
Paris, began running her Friday night
salon. Silfverstolpe's salon welcomed leading figures in Swedish science, literature and high society and even hosted influential foreign visitors to the country. The salon was a powerful presence within the culture of Sweden for two decades and was the centre of the country's
romantic movement. Aside from her support for romantic poets and novelists, Silfverstolpe was also a
patron to a number of songwriters, including
Per Ulrik Kernell and
Adolf Fredrik Lindblad. Silfverstolpe, who had kept diaries throughout her life, began writing her memoirs from 1822 following Kernell's insistent suggestion. Excerpts from these were eventually released in four parts from 1908 to 1911, a second edition was published in 1914. The memoirs are rich in personal and historical detail. Silfverstolpe described Sweden and many of her most famous contemporaries with great tact and familiarity. Her writings provide an important contemporary account of figures such as
Carl Jonas Love Almqvist,
Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom,
Erik Gustaf Geijer, Lindblad,
Anders Fredrik Skjöldebrand,
Esaias Tegnér,
Adolf Törneros and
Johan Olof Wallin. Numerous contemporaries of Silfverstolpe dedicated poetry to her; these include Atterbom, Geijer and Wallin. There is also a road named after her in
Sollentuna Municipality—Malla Silfverstolpes väg—upon which is Rudbeckskolan (a school named after her maternal family). ==See also==