Vilhelm Moberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vilhelm Moberg (August 20, 1898 - August 8, 1973) was a Swedish author and historian.
He was born in Småland, in southern Sweden of peasant and soldier stock. He worked as a farm and forest laborer, and later worked at glassblowing and studied at a Folk Academy until he became a recognized author.
Moberg's most famous work is a series of four novels (1949-1959) that describe one Swedish family's migration from Småland to Minnesota in the mid 19th century, a destiny shared by almost one million people, including several of the author's relatives. The musical Kristina från Duvemåla by ex-ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson is based on this story. These novels have been translated into English: The Emigrants (1951), Unto a Good Land (1954), The Settlers (1961), The Last Letter Home (1961). His literary depiction of the Swedish-American immigrant experience is comparable to O.E. Rolvaag's work depicting the experience of Norwegian-American immigrants. Some of his other work has also been translated into English, and he is well-recognized in America among those of Scandinavian heritage.
With a working class background, Moberg started out as a newspaper editor (in 1919). His first novel, Raskens, appeared in 1927. In his works, he often expressed a republican (anti-royalist) point of view, much due to the facts that surfaced in the Kejne affair and Haijby affair, in which Moberg took an active part.
In his autobiographical novel Soldier with Broken Rifle (Soldat med brutet gevär), he speaks to the importance of giving voice to the downtrodden, illiterate classes of his forebears. This viewpoint also informed his History of the Swedish People, I-II (Min svenska historia, berättad för folket, I-II) published in 1970-71.
Vilhelm Moberg committed suicide[citation needed] on August 8, 1973, out of despair over the situation of radical folk culture in Sweden[citation needed], and is buried in Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.
[edit] Works in English translation
- The Emigrants, ISBN 0-87351-319-3.
- Unto a Good Land, ISBN 0-87351-320-7.
- The Settlers, ISBN 0-87351-321-5.
- The Last Letter Home, ISBN 0-87351-322-3.
- A History of the Swedish People, Vol. 1: From Prehistory to the Renaissance, ISBN 0-8166-4656-2.
- A History of the Swedish People, Vol. 2: From Renaissance to Revolution, ISBN 0-8166-4657-0.
- A Time on Earth, ISBN 1-56849-314-2.
- When I Was a Child, ISBN 0-8488-0302-7.
- The Unknown Swedes: A Book About Swedes and America, Past and Present, ISBN 0-8093-1486-X.
- Memory of Youth
- Ride This Night!
[edit] External links
- Vilhelm Moberg - a presentation at Sweden.se Note: Is password-protected for some reason!
- Kristina from Duvemåla - the musical
