Lars Gyllensten

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Lars Gyllensten

Lars Gyllensten (born November 12, 1921 in Stockholm ; † May 25, 2006 ibid) was a Swedish writer and doctor. He was the son of the dispatcher Carl Gyllensten and Ingrid Rangström, sister of Ture Rangström . He sat in chair number 14 of the Swedish Academy , of which he was temporarily secretary.

Lars Gyllensten received his doctorate in 1953 with a thesis on thymus and thyroid in guinea pigs . His first work as an author was Camera Obscura , which he wrote in 1946 under the pseudonym Jan Wictor together with Torgny Greitz . The first book as sole author was Moderna myter (1949), which was shortly followed by Det blå skeppet (1950) and Barnabok (1952).

Gyllensten initially worked as a prosector , then as an assistant professor in histology at the Karolinska Institute in Solna , before he decided to become a full-time author in 1973 at the age of 52. In 1966 he was elected as a member of the Swedish Academy, where he took a seat on Chair No. 14. From 1977 to 1986 he was the permanent secretary of the Academy and from 1968 to 1987 a member of the Nobel Committee. Since 1979 he was also a member of the Nobel Foundation, of which he was spokesman from 1987 to 1993. He was also an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Literature ( Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academies ) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . Lars Gyllensten left the Swedish Academy in 1989 in protest because the members could not agree to sentence Ayatollah Khomeini on the basis of his fatwa against Salman Rushdie . Since 1967 Gyllensten sat on the board of Swedish radio .

Lars Gyllensten enjoyed debating in the daily newspapers and initiated debates for several decades, especially in development aid, environmental and transport policy. He himself was an outspoken opponent of the focus on car traffic and personally refused to drive. In the 1960s, Gyllensten organized a signature campaign among academics in which they agreed to forego part of their wages if the government would invest it in development aid. In the debate about the expansion of the Vindelälv in order to use its hydropower to generate energy, Gyllensten was a strong opponent of the expansion and adamantly defended his arguments against Olof Palme .

When in the spring of 1966 a major nationwide debate about the decline of faith broke out in Swedish society, Gyllensten took a strong stand against ideologies and utopias by publishing, among other things, The 10 Commandments - the new look . In 2000 Gyllensten wrote his memoirs under the title Minnen, bara minnen , which included much criticism of the Swedish Academy and his successor as permanent secretary, Sture Allén . Few of his works have been translated into German, English or French.

Prizes and awards

Works

The following are published in German :

  • Desperados 1965 (Original: Desperados 1962)
  • Kains memoirs 1968 (Original: Kains memoarer 1963)
  • In the shadow of Don Juan 1979 (Original: I skuggan av Don Juan 1975)

Other works not published in German:

  • Camera obscura 1946 (under the pseudonym Jan Wictor, together with Torgny Greitz)
  • Moderna myter 1949
  • Det blå skeppet 1950
  • Barnabok 1952
  • Carnivora 1953
  • Senilia 1956
  • Senators 1958
  • Socrates död 1960
  • Nihilistiskt credo 1964
  • Juvenilia 1965
  • Lotus i Hades 1966
  • Diarium spirituale 1968
  • Palatet i park 1970
  • Ur min offentliga sector 1971
  • Männskan djuren all naturen 1971
  • Grottan i ecnen 1973
  • I skuggan av Don Juan 1975
  • Lapptäcken live stick 1976
  • Tal på Övralid 1969, 1977
  • Baklängesminnen 1978
  • Klipp i 70-talet 1979
  • Nobel Prize in Literature 1980
  • Huvudskallebok 1981
  • Svenska akademien förr och nu 1982
  • Provdockan 1983
  • Rätt och slätt 1983
  • Skuggans återkomst eller Don Juan går igen 1985
  • Sju vise mästare om kärlek 1986
  • Just så eller kanske det 1989
  • Hjärnfilspån 1989 (under the pseudonym Pär Silje)
  • Det himmelska gästabudet 1991
  • Så var det says 1992
  • Hack i häl på Minerva (with Georg Klein) 1993
  • Anteckningar från en vindskupa 1993
  • Ljuset ur skuggornas värld 1995
  • Augustin och Celestine: om nåra små loppors liv och leverne 1995
  • Om Berzelius och Svenska akademien 1997
  • Kistbrev 1998
  • Minnen, bara minnen 2000
  • Med andras ord, och egna 2004 (collection of quotations)