Numers, Lorenz von

Born in Åbo (Turku), von Numers lived between 1913 and 1994. He was a translator and author as well as a journalist in Finnish and Swedish newspapers, including Svenska Dagbladet. As the cosmopolite he was, he became a resident in France from 1959.
 
von Numers made his debut with the poetry collection Svart harnesk (1934) followed by Porträtt med blomma (1936) and Havslyktan (1942), collections characterized by formal skill, imagination and sense of life.
 
As a prose writer, he gave a romanticized portrait of the French Bohemian poet François Villon's life, Snäckans bröder (1946), in addition to several other historical novels, e.g. Drottningens handelsmän (1964), a colorful, witty and entertaining depiction of Moscow in the 1650s in a cultured narrative style.
 
Lorenz von Numers also wrote satirical contemporary novels, travel stories, historical essays, and he translated French literature, e.g. André Gide and Bédier's Novel of Tristan and Isolde.

Lindgren, Astrid

Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren is born on 14th November 1907 at the parsonage in Näs, Vimmerby, second child to Samuel August and Hanna Ericsson. After graduating from high school in Vimmerby she works as a volonteer at Vimmerby tidning a few years. At first she writes notices and reviews, does proofreading and answers the telephone. After only a short time she is also entrusted with the task of providing journalistic articles for the paper. In 1926 she moves to Stockholm, where she works as a secretary. In 1933 Astrid Lindgren´s first children’s stories are published in Stockholms-Tidningen and in Landsbygdens Jul. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Astrid begins to write a “War Diary”. She works as secretary to Harry Söderman, Associate Professor in Criminology at Stockholm University, and learns a great deal about encryption, finger-printing and criminal technology. Her parents-in-law purchase the house in Furusund, which is to become Astrid Lindgren’s summer residence for the rest of her life. This is where she wrote many of her books and film-scripts. Astrid is offered a top secret job at the Special Intelligence Agency in the mailcensorship office which gives her deep insight into the afflictions of war in the world.
In 1944 the publishing firm Rabén & Sjögren runs a competition for authors of books for girls. Astrid makes her debut as author by winning 2nd Prize with Britt-Mari lättar sitt hjärta. She wins 1st Prize in the Rabén & Sjögren competition, Best Book for 6-10 year olds with a reworked manuscript for Pippi Longstocking. The book is released and becomes a great success with 20,000 copies sold in two weeks. In the autumn of 1946, Astrid Lindgren is employed as Publishing Editor with Rabén & Sjögren but keeps writing her own books as well, one after another.
In 1957 Astrid Lindgren begins her collaboration with the director Olle Hellbom, in the making of the third Bill Bergson film. They made a total of 17 films together. In 1963 Seacrow Island is written as a TV series (before it becomes a book). The first book about Emil in Lönneberga is published. Pippi Longstocking becomes a TV series in 1969, which turns into a great success. Astrid Lindgren retires from Rabén & Sjögren in 1970. In 1981 the theme-park, Astrid Lindgren’s World, is founded in Vimmerby, under the name “Sagobyn” (Fairytale Village). Astrid’s last book is published in 1993, the picture-book Jullov är ett bra påhitt, sa Madicken. After a period of illness, Astrid Lindgren passes away on 28th January 2002 at her home in Dalagatan, Stockholm.
Astrid Lindgren receives several awards, among others the H. C. Andersen Medal, often called the “Nobel Prize for Children’s Literature”, the Swedish Academy’s Grand Gold Medal and the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, the German Booksellers’ Peace Prize in 1978.

Parland, Henry

In May of 1929, the Finland-Swedish student of law and recently debuted poet, Henry Parland, born in 1908 in Viborg, was sent by his parents from Helsinki to Kaunas (Kovno), the capital of Lithuania. They wanted to save him from booze, bohemianism, and modernism. It was the final move for the young author, who died a year and a half later of scarlet fever in his exile. He was only 22 years old. He was interred in Kaunas.

The Parland family, domiciled on the Karelian Isthmus, in St. Petersburg, and in Vyborg, and, further back in time, with German-Baltic and English fore-fathers, had settled in Finland after the Russian Revolution. Like many other emigrants, the family had lost their homes and other assets in the revolution. But they had Finnish citizenship.

As a fourteen-year-old, Henry Parland, the eldest of four gifted brothers, began attending a Swedish school in Grankulla (Kauniainen) outside Helsinki. Swedish became his fourth language — after German, Russian, and Finnish — and his literary language. After he completed his secondary school studies in 1927, there followed two academic years of law study at the University of Helsinki, but even more of “life studies” and preparations for a life of letters. Parland became one of the collaborators in the journal Quosego. Tidskrift för ny generation [Quosego: Journal for New Generation] (1928–1929), together with, among others, the older modernist authors Elmer Diktonius, Hagar Olsson, Gunnar Björling, and Rabbe Enckell.

The goal-oriented Parland had already tried to get a collection of poetry published in the fall of 1927, without success. A year later, he did better, and in the spring of 1929, the through-composed collection Idealrealisation [Ideals Clearance] appeared, one of the most exciting Finland-Swedish poem collections of the 20th century.

Södergran, Edith

Edith Södergran (1892–1923) was the first avant-garde poet in Nordic literature. She was born in St. Petersburg in 1892, grew up in a middle-class family and attended a highly regarded German girls’ school in the then Russian capital. She was a Finnish citizen but her first language was Swedish. She wrote her poetry in German, French, Russian and Swedish and additionally spoke Finnish, English and some Italian. Her first literary language was German (about half of her production is in German), but it is quite traditional; romantic youth poems mainly influenced by Heinrich Heine. In 1908 she suddenly started to write exclusively in her home language Swedish, a language she was never educated in. After this departure she focused her poetry more on what it is to be female and what strategies one can have as a woman in a changing world of more equal opportunities. French symbolism, German art-noveau and Russian and Italian futurism all influenced her style. Södergran was the first European female writer to publish a literary manifest, an advanced idea in 1919, and she introduced the idea of “the New Woman” in Nordic poetry. Today Södergran’s writings are seen as constituting a paradigm shift; her first collection of poetry, Poems in 1916 (Dikter 1916) represents the breakthrough of literary avant-gardism in Scandinavia. During her lifetime she published four collections of poetry and one collection of aphorisms. After her death a final collection of remaining poems “The Land that is not”, was published in 1925. In 1909 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent a few years in sanatoriums in Finland and in Davos, Switzerland. She died of tuberculosis in 1923 at the age of 31.

Porthan, Henrik Gabriel

Born in Viitasaari, Tavastland, in 1739, Porthan died in Turku in 1804. He was a professor and rector at the Royal Academy of Turku. As a scholar he sometimes is entitled as The Father of Finnish History.
His father was a vicar who became mentally ill in 1744. He was raised by his uncle Gustaf Juslenius (1702-1774) who was the vicar of Kronoby in the county of Ostrobothnia. In 1754, at the age of 15, Porthan entered the Academy of Turku. He was a student of professor Daniel Juslenius (1676–1752) who later served at Bishop of the Diocese of Borgå.
Porthan was awarded his Master of Philosophy in 1760. He was a professor 1777–1804 and served as rector 1786–1787 and 1798–1799. He brought Finnish history-writing, study of mythology and folk poetry to an international level. His De Poësi Fennica (published in five parts 1776-78), a study on Finnish folk poetry, had great importance in awakening public interest in the Kalevala-poetry and Finnish mythology, and the study was also the basis of all later study of the poetry.
He was among the founders of the Aurora Society that advocated Finnish literary pursuits and was the editor of the first Finnish newspaper, Tidningar ugifne af et sällskap i Åbo, founded in 1771. He instructed Kristian Erik Lencqvist (1761–1808) whose 1782 dissertation De superstitione veterum Fennorum theoretica et practica was a seminal study of historic Finnish customs.
Porthan was also the instructor of poet Frans Michael Franzén (1772–1847) and also inspired the following generation of Finnish authors, poets and researchers, many of whom were among the founders of the Finnish Literature Society in 1831.

Jangfeldt, Bengt

Bengt Jangfeldt, born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948. Studied Russian literature in Stockholm and Moscow. PhD in 1976 on a dissertation about Vladimir Majakovsky. Lives in Stockholm. The author of biographies of Axel Munthe (2003), Vladimir Mayakovsky (2007), Joseph Brodsky (2010), and Raoul Wallenberg (2012). His books have been translated into several languages. He also works as a translator and has translated the poetry of Mayakovsky (with Gunnar Harding), as well as the poetry and prose of Osip Mandelstam and Joseph Brodsky.
 
Bengt Jangfeldt has received several prizes for his books, including the August Prize (twice) and the Swedish Academy’s Biography Prize.