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Harry Martinson (May 6, 1904—February 11, 1978) was a Swedish sailor, author and poet. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy
Swedish Academy

The Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies of Sweden. Modelled after the Acad?mie fran?aise, it has 18 members....
. He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
 in 1974 together with fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson
Eyvind Johnson

Eyvind Johnson, was a Sweden author. He became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1957 and shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson in 1974 with the citation:for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom....
. The choice for Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson was very controversial as both were on the Nobel panel. They and Graham Greene
Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour was an English writer best known as a novelist, but who also produced short stories, plays, screenplays, travel writing and criticism....
, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow , was an acclaimed Canada-United States writer born in Canada of Russian-Jewish origin. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976 and the National Medal of Arts in 1988....
 and Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
 were the favored candidates that year.

inson was born in Jämshög, in the Swedish county
Counties of Sweden

The Counties of Sweden, or l?n, are the first level administrative and political subdivisions of Sweden. Sweden is divided into 21 counties....
 of Blekinge
Blekinge

is one of the provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Sm?land, Sk?ne and the Baltic Sea.Blekinge consists of 5 towns; Karlskrona, Ronneby, Karlshamn, S?lvesborg and Olofstr?m....
 in south-eastern Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
.






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Harry Martinson (May 6, 1904—February 11, 1978) was a Swedish sailor, author and poet. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy
Swedish Academy

The Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies of Sweden. Modelled after the Acad?mie fran?aise, it has 18 members....
. He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" ....
 in 1974 together with fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson
Eyvind Johnson

Eyvind Johnson, was a Sweden author. He became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1957 and shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson in 1974 with the citation:for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom....
. The choice for Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson was very controversial as both were on the Nobel panel. They and Graham Greene
Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour was an English writer best known as a novelist, but who also produced short stories, plays, screenplays, travel writing and criticism....
, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow , was an acclaimed Canada-United States writer born in Canada of Russian-Jewish origin. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976 and the National Medal of Arts in 1988....
 and Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
 were the favored candidates that year.

Life

Martinson was born in Jämshög, in the Swedish county
Counties of Sweden

The Counties of Sweden, or l?n, are the first level administrative and political subdivisions of Sweden. Sweden is divided into 21 counties....
 of Blekinge
Blekinge

is one of the provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Sm?land, Sk?ne and the Baltic Sea.Blekinge consists of 5 towns; Karlskrona, Ronneby, Karlshamn, S?lvesborg and Olofstr?m....
 in south-eastern Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
. At a young age he lost both his parents, whereafter he was stationed on the Swedish country side as a foster child (Kommunalbarn). At the age of sixteen, Martinson ran away, and enrolled on a ship where he spent the next years sailing around the world, visiting countries such as Brazil and India.

A few years later, lung problems forced him to set ashore in Sweden. The next years were spent travelling around Sweden without a steady employment, at times living as a vagabond on country roads. In the city of Malmö
Malmö

is the third most populous urban areas in Sweden in Sweden, situated in its southernmost province of Scania.Malm? is the seat of Malm? Municipality and the capital of Sk?ne County....
, he was arrested for vagrancy, at the age of 21.

In 1929, he debuted as a poet. Together with Artur Lundkvist
Artur Lundkvist

Artur Lundkvist was a Sweden writer, poet and literary critic. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1968.He wrote around 80 books, and his works have been translated into some 30 languages....
, Gustav Sandgren
Gustav Sandgren

Gustav Sandgren, born 20 August 1904 in Western Stenby in Motala in ?sterg?tland, died 11 August 1983 at Indore in Stockholm, was an author. He married Titti Lindstedt in 1935....
, Erik Asklund and Josef Kjellgren, he authored the anthology Fem unga (Five Youths), which introduced Swedish Modernism
Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
. His poetry combined an acute eye for and love of nature with a deeply felt humanism
Humanism

Humanism is a broad category of ethics that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts....
. His popular success as a novelist came with the semi-autobiographical Nässlorna blomma (Flowering Nettle), in 1935, about hardships encountered by a young boy in the countryside. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages.

One of his most famous works is the poetic cycle Aniara, which is a story of the space craft Aniara, that during a journey through space
Spaceflight

Spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space.Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and telecommunications satellite....
 loses its course, and subsequently aimlessly floats through space, without destination. The book was published in (1956), and became in 1959 an opera
Aniara (opera)

Aniara is an opera by Karl-Birger Blomdahl that premiered in 1959 with a libretto by Erik Lindegren based on the poem Aniara by Harry Martinson....
, composed by Karl-Birger Blomdahl
Karl-Birger Blomdahl

Karl-Birger Blomdahl was a Sweden composer and Conductor born in V?xj?. He was educated in biochemistry, but was primarily active in music and by his experimental compositions he became one of the big names in Swedish modernism....
. The cycle has been described as an epic story of man's fragility and folly.

From 1929 to 1940 he was married to the Swedish writer Moa Martinson
Moa Martinson

Moa Martinson was a Sweden author. She wrote several well-known novels, but also contributed to social democracy newspapers and labor publications....
. The sensitive Harry found criticism in the 1970s subsequent to the Nobel prize hard to cope with. He committed suicide with a pair of scissors in Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm
Stockholm

is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish Government of Sweden, the Parliament of Sweden, and the official residence of the Swedish Monarchy of Sweden....
 in 1978.

The 100th anniversary of his birth was celebrated around Sweden in 2004.

Bibliography

Titles in English where known.



Novels


*Vägen till Klockrike (The Road)
*Nässlorna blomma (Flowering Nettles)
*Vägen ut (The Way Out)


Essays


*Svärmare och harkrank
*Midsommardalen (Midsommer valley)
*Det enkla och det svåra (The easy and the hard)
*Utsikt från en grästuva (Sight from a tussock)
*Verklighet till döds (Reality to death)
*Den förlorade jaguaren (The Lost Jaguar)
*Resor utan mål (Aimless Journeys)


Poems


*Spökskepp
*Nomad
*Passad (Trade Wind)
*Cikada
*Aniara
*Gräsen i Thule
*Vagnen
*Dikter om ljus och mörker
*Tuvor




Radio plays


*Gringo
*Salvation
*Lotsen från Moluckas

Stage play


*Tre knivar från Wei

Psalms


*De blomster som i marken bor


External links

  • Swedish book review