Leon Larson sometimes written Larsson, was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 anarchist

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 and political poet, born in Skutskär

Skutskär

Skutskär is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Älvkarleby Municipality in Uppsala County, Sweden with 6,136 inhabitants in 2005. According to the census of 2000 6,003 people lived in Skutskär, most of them in Älvkarleby Municipality, but a minor part in Gävle Municipality in Gävleborg...

.

Leon Larson’s fascination with fire is very prominent in all of his writings. As a 15-year-old, he was even sentenced to penal labor for arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

 after burning down the blacksmith where he worked in Midsummer

Midsummer

Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...

 1899.

In the early 1900s, Larson was active in various anarchist groups, but in 1907 he broke with anarchism and joined the Social Democratic Youth Organization.

In 1909 Larson published the autobiographical novel Samhällets fiende ("Enemy of the State"), in which he dealt with his anarchist past. The book was the beginning of the end for Larson’s career as a writer, however, as he had by then lost many of his original followers.