Stjernstolpe, Jonas Magnus

Stjernstolpe, Jonas Magnus Image 1

Jonas Magnus Stjernstolpe, portrait by Fredric Westin

Jonas Magnus Stjernstolpe (1777-1831) was a central figure in Stockholm’s literary social life in the beginning of the 19th century. His own literary debut, he committed, without success, the comic novel, Wilhelm (1801). He worked at the War Office as the first Executive Secretary.

Stjernstolpe’s literary career was at hand bumpy and his reputation as a literary man procured for himself largely through his translations from Latin, German, French and later even Spanish. Most notable are his interpretations of Voltaire’s What Pleases the Ladies (1817) and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1819) and the translation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote (4 parts, 1818-1819). He wrote stories in verse with Christoph Martin Wieland’s poetry as a model. Stjernstolpe was also a member of the neo-romantic literary society "The Seven Wise Men", that had members as P. D. A. Atterbom, Lorenzo Hammarsköld and V. F. Palmblad and stood behind the publication of the weekly magazine Polyfem 1809-12.