Paul Britten Austin
Encyclopedia
Paul Britten Austin (April 5, 1922 – July 25, 2005) was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature
Swedish literature
Swedish literature refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök Runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. With the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages,...

. He was born in Dawlish
Dawlish
Dawlish is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon in England, from the county town of Exeter. It has a population of 12,819...

, South Devon, England. He was educated at Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

. In 1951, he married novelist Margareta Bergman
Margareta Bergman
Margareta Bergman is a Swedish novelist.- Life and career:Margareta Bergman, only sister of film director Ingmar Bergman , is the author of novels Karin and Mirror Mirror.As a child of 8, she helped to inspire her brother Ingmar Bergman to create his first plays at home in 1930...

, sister of film director Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

; they lived in Stockholm, where he worked for Radio Sweden as head of English-language broadcasting. He directed the Swedish Tourist Office in London between 1957 and 1968, at the same time working on his book on Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman
was a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....

.

His parents were the writers Frederick B.A. King and Mildred King. Britten was employed by Swedish Radio's international investment program from 1948 to 1957 and at the Swedish Tourist Association's office in London from 1957 to 1968.

Publications and Achievements

Paul Britten Austin is best known for his work on Sweden’s bard, eighteenth century singer and poet Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman
was a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....

 - the first full biography of Bellman in any language, and for his fine translations of some sixty works of famous Swedish writers into English. Britten Austin was awarded the North Star for the dissemination of Swedish literature in English translation. The Swedish Academy awarded Britten Austin their special prize for his Bellman book, and its interpretation prize in 1979.

In the Foreword to his life of Bellman, Britten Austin explains: "This book was born on the spur of a moment - the moment when I realised that .. there is not, and apparently never has been, a book on Bellman in English. What, the greatest of all song-writers, in any language, unknown? Such a gap in general knowledge, I felt, had to be immediately repaired; and although the draughty and unsprung carriages of British Railways, commuting on 'staggering wheel' between Victoria and Haywards Heath
Haywards Heath
-Climate:Haywards Heath experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Rail:Haywards Heath railway station is a major station on the Brighton Main Line...

, are certainly not the best place to cudgel one's brain for rhymes or to elucidate eighteenth-century Swedish texts, the work was immediately put in hand."

Britten Austin argues that Bellman is unique in being a great poet, in setting all his work to music, and in being "as great on the page as when he is sung". He comments on the extreme difficulty of making poetry accessible in another language. Verse translation into the original metre is necessary, he argues, "because the virtuosity of Bellman's verse-structures, wedding his poems to their melodies, is itself the source of much of their dramatic effect." Britten Austin saw Bellman as an "infinitely loveable and brilliant genius of the Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

, whose earthy humanity, not unlike Burns', blends so exquisitely with the graces of his artificial age." It is clear that Britten Austin admired and sought in his own way to emulate the many-talented Bellman.

Alongside his career and his other writings, Britten Austin spent 25 years working on his detailed three-volume eyewitness-only account of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...

. He explains he is "profoundly skeptical of historians." He felt "the more readable they are, the less historically reliable", so instead he chose "to invent nothing, hardly even a phrase" but instead to "resurrect them - in their own words". Britten Austin takes "160 people of the many thousands who made up the Grande Armée". "I thought, and without any impertinent comments of my own (after all I wasn't there), I might be able to reconstitute, as authentically as ever can be done, six months of vanished time." To achieve this "Naturally I have had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray." The result is a uniquely detailed report from the front.

Selected Bibliography

The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman
was a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....

, Genius of the Swedish Rococo. Allhem, Malmö; American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York; 1967.

1812: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia. Greenhill Books, 2000. (Originally published in three volumes: The March on Moscow, Napoleon in Moscow, The Great Retreat.)

Gustaf Fröding
Gustaf Fröding
Gustaf Fröding was a Swedish poet and writer, born in Alster outside Karlstad in Värmland. The family moved to Kristinehamn in the year 1867. He later studied at Uppsala University and worked as a journalist in Karlstad....

: His Life and Poetry. 1986.

On Being Swedish: Reflections Towards a Better Understanding of the Swedish Character. 1968.

The Swedes: How They Live and Work.

The Organ Maker's Wife, (a novel), 1981.

Selected Translations

The Locked Room
The Locked Room
The Locked Room is a novel by Sjöwall and Wahlöö in their detective series revolving around Martin Beck and his team. -Plot summary:...

, by Sjöwall and Wahlöö
Sjöwall and Wahlöö
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, a common-law wife and husband team of detective writers from Sweden. Together they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels about the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the...

 (Original title: Det Slutna rummet). Pantheon Books, 1973.

Doctor Glas
Doctor Glas
Doctor Glas, an epistolary novel by Hjalmar Söderberg, tells the story of a physician in 19th century Sweden who deals with moral and love issues.-Synopsis:...

, by Hjalmar Söderberg
Hjalmar Söderberg
Hjalmar Emil Fredrik Söderberg was a Swedish novelist, playwright, poet and journalist. His works often deal with melancholy and lovelorn characters, and offer a rich portrayal of contemporary Stockholm through the eyes of the flaneur...

. Little, Brown and Co., 1963. Reissued with introduction by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

, Harvill, 2003.

Autobiography of Evert Taube
Evert Taube
Evert Axel Taube was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is best known for his folk songs, and is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians.-Biography:...

, I Come From a Raging Sea (Original title: Jag kommer av ett brusand' hav). 1967.

Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...

, By Stig Björkman
Stig Björkman
Stig Björkman is a Swedish writer and film critic. He has also directed fifteen films since 1964. His 1972 film Georgia, Georgia was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected bibliography:...

, Torsten Manns, and Jonas Sima. Simon and Schuster, 1973.

A History of the Swedish People
History of Sweden
Modern Sweden started out of the Kalmar Union formed in 1397 and by the unification of the country by King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. In the 17th century Sweden expanded its territories to form the Swedish empire. Most of these conquered territories had to be given up during the 18th century...

, by Vilhelm Moberg
Vilhelm Moberg
Karl Artur Vilhelm Moberg was a Swedish author and historian, most commonly associated with his four novels known as The Emigrants Series.-Early life:...

. Two volumes. 2005.
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