Eyvind Johnson

Eyvind Olov Verner Johnson (born July 29, 1900 in Svartbjörnsbyn outside Boden , Sweden , † August 25, 1976 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish writer and Nobel Prize winner from 1974.

life and work

Eyvind Johnson was the sixth and youngest child in the family. His father, Olof Petter Johnson was a stonemason from Värmland, his mother originally came from Blekinge. In 1904 his father died and due to financial difficulties little Eyvind had to move in with his aunt and her husband.

At 13 he was already working in a quarry, brickworks and sawmill; In 1919 he settled in Stockholm, where he worked as a journalist. In the twenties he lived in Berlin and Paris , where he mostly earned his living as a dishwasher. His first work De fyra främlingarna , a collection of short stories, appeared in 1924. A number of novels soon followed.

Together with other young writers, he founded the magazine Vår nutid . He also published articles for other left-wing magazines (Brand; Syndikalisten; Arbetaren ). He returned to Sweden in 1930 with his first wife, Aase Christofersen. In Sweden, Johnson joined the Tretton group . This group had focused on political problems of the time ( First World War ). In his work Den trygga världen his critical view of the First World War is described.

He made his literary breakthrough with the tetralogy Romanen om Olof (1934-37). All four novels ( Nu var det 1914 ; Här har du ditt liv! ; Om Se dig! ; Slutspel i Ungdomen ) include autobiographical elements (eg .: the death of his father;. The various works; etc.) Mainly act works about a poor boy who leaves home at 14 to find work and his place in the world. The main character Olof changes over time. At the end of the tetralogy, a toddler becomes an intellectual man.

Together with his wife Cilla Frankenhäuser, he translated works by Albert Camus , Anatole France , Jean-Paul Sartre and Eugène Ionesco . During the Second World War , he founded the Norwegian underground newspaper Et Handslåg with Willy Brandt . In the post-war period he sharply condemned communism . In 1957 he became a member of the Swedish Academy .

Peter Keckeis from the Benziger publishing house paved the way for him and other Scandinavian authors such as Per Olof Sundman and Dea Trier Mørch to become German-speaking readers.

Among his most important works is the trilogy of novels Grupp Krilon (1941), Krilons resa (1942) and Krilon själv (1943), in which he describes Stockholm during the Second World War and takes a stand for Western values ​​and against fascism and communism. The novel Drömmar om rosor och eld is about the persecution of witches in France.

In 1962 Eyvind Johnson was the first author to be honored with the Nordic Council Literature Prize (for Hans Nådes Tid ). In 1974 he won the Nobel Prize together with Harry Martinson. As a member of the Swedish Academy, the writer Karl Ragnar Gierow judged the two award winners:

"They are representative of the many proletarian writers or working-class poets, who on a wide front, broke into our literature, not to ravage and plunder, but to enrich it with their fortunes."

He received the Nobel Prize, which he shared with Harry Martinson , for his "narrative art which, looking far across countries and ages, serves freedom".

Works (selection)

stories

• De fyra främlingarna , 1924.
• The night is here. Stories (“Natten är här”, 1932). Reclam, Leipzig 1985.
• Time of unrest. Narratives . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1974, ISBN 3-499-11871-8 .

Travel book

• Notes from Switzerland (“Dagbok från Schweiz”, 1949). Huber Verlag, Fraunfeld 1976, ISBN 3-7193-0530-9 .

Novels

• Stad i ljus , 1928 (the French translation Lettre recommandée as early as 1927).
• Nu var det 1914 ("Romanen om Olof I"), 1934.
• Här you ditt liv! ("Novels om Olof II"), 1935.
• Se dig inte om! ("Novels om Olof III"), 1936.
• Slutspel i ungdomen ("Romanen om Olof IV"), 1937.
• Here you have your life! Roman ("Här har du ditt liv!", 1935). Ressloff Verlag, Hamburg 1951.
• The homecoming of Odysseus. Roman ("Stränderas svall", 1946). Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1971, ISBN 3-549-06216-8 .
• Dream about roses and fire. Roman ("Drömmar om rosor och eld", 1949). Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1965.
• Away with the sun. Roman ("Lägg undan solen", 1951). Claassen, Hamburg 1951.
• Winter trip. Roman ("Vinterresa i Norbotten", 1955). Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1969.
• Clouds over Metapont. Roman ("Molnen över Metapontion", 1957). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1974, ISBN 3-548-03124-2 .
• A great time (“Hans nådes tid”, 1960). Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1968.
• Favel ensam , 1968.
• Journey into silence. A novel about prisoners (“Några steg mot tystnaden”, 1973). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1975, ISBN 3-550-06250-8 .

Film adaptations

• Jan Troell (director): Here you have your life (“Här har du ditt liv”). 1966.

literature

• Detlef Brennecke: Eyvind Johnson . In: Ders .: Critical Lexicon for Contemporary Foreign Literature, Vol. 4 .
• Susanna Flühmann: At the zero point of creation. The genesis of the artist in the “Paris” novel by August Strindberg , Eyvind Johnson and Cora Sandel . LIT-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-03735-264-9 (also dissertation, University of Zurich 2008).
• Mona Kårsnäas: Eyvind Johnson och Djävulen. Männniskans andra jag och den politiska ondskan. Study a series of motifs in Eyvind Johnson's novel constructions . Lundequist, Uppsala 1984, ISBN 91-506-0564-X (also dissertation, University of Uppsala 1984).
• Renate Mangold: Me and the other. Studies on the autobiographical novels Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinsons . Dissertation, University of Tübingen 1987.
• Per-Olof Mattson: Eyvind Johnson bibliografi . Acta Univ. Upsaliensis, Uppsala 2002, ISBN 91-554-4087-8 .
• Birgit Munkhammar: Hemlik krivaren. En essa om Eyvind Johnson . Bonnier, Stockholm 2000, ISBN 91-0-057220-9 .
• Gavin Orton: Eyvind Johnson . Twayne, New York 1972 ( Twayne's world authors series ; 150).

Web links

Commons : Eyvind Johnson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Eyvind Johnson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Information from the Nobel Foundation on the 1974 award ceremony for Eyvind Johnson (English)