Fredrik Böök
Martin Fredrik Böök (born May 12, 1883 in Kristianstad as Martin Fredrik Christofferson , † December 2, 1961 in Copenhagen ) was a Swedish professor of literature, critic and writer. He wrote biographies and books on Swedish poetry.
Life
Alongside Henrik Schück , Böök was one of the most influential Swedish literary scholars for decades. From 1920 to 1924 he was a professor at Lund University . In 1922 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy ,
Because Böök personally rejected the novel Der Zauberberg , which was originally regarded as worthy of a prize, the Stockholm Committee's justification for the Nobel Prize awarded to Thomas Mann in 1929 was based almost exclusively on Buddenbrooks . The reason for the disqualification of the Zauberberg novel is barely comprehensible today: the work is “untranslatable” and “too broad and cumbersome” and cannot be integrated into the aesthetics of the “grand style”. Thomas Mann reported on this in a speech in 1939: In fact, “The Magic Mountain” is a very German book; it is to the extent that foreign assessors completely underestimated its world possibility. An eminent Swedish critic publicly stated with all determination that one would never dare to translate this book into a foreign language because it was absolutely unsuitable for it. That was a false prophecy.
In his memoirs, Max Dessoir describes how Böök, "Sweden's critical dictator", worked with him in vain from 1924 to ensure that Paul Ernst received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
After the Second World War , Böök lost his previously dominant role in Swedish literary life because he had cultivated a relationship of benevolent sympathy with Nazi Germany.
Others
Böök was in contact with Eberhard Grisebach , who in 1932 mentioned in a letter from Davos to Edvard Munch that he wanted to pick him up in Malen for a trip to Sweden.
literature
- Fredrik Böök . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 34 : Supplement: Aa – Cambon . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1922, Sp. 948 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Introduction to the Magic Mountain - For Princeton University Students, May 1938. As a foreword in: The Magic Mountain . Frankfurt am Main 1952, p. 11
- ↑ Max Dessoir: Book of Memory . Stuttgart 1946, p. 247
- ^ Lothar Grisebach: From Munch to Kirchner - Experienced art history in letters from the estate of Eberhard Grisebach . Munich 1968, p. 161
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Böök, Fredrik |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Böök, Martin Fredrik; Christofferson, Martin Fredrik |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish professor of literature, critic and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 12, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kristianstad |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd December 1961 |
| Place of death | Copenhagen |