Ebba Gustava Augusta Atterbom (19 January 1868 – 23 August 1961) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

translator and educator. She was the first person to translate the work of Irish novelist

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

into Swedish. In 1959, she was awarded the

Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity The Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity ( it, Stella della solidarietà italiana ) was founded as a national order by the first President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola, in 1947, to recognise civilian and military expatriates or ...

in recognition of her contributions in Italian to the literature of Sweden.

Life

Ebba Atterbom was born on 19 January 1868 in Gryt in

Södermanland County Södermanland County ( sv, Södermanlands län) is a county or '' län'' on the southeast coast of Sweden. In the local Sörmlandic dialects it is virtually universally shortened and pronounced as Sörmlands län, or simply Sörmland, which is t ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. She was the second of the seven children to Augusta (née Tigerschiöld) and Ernst Atterbom, an army officer and engineer. Her father was the son of poet

Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom (19 January 1790 in Åsbo, Östergötland – 21 July 1855) was a Swedish romantic poet, and a member of the Swedish Academy. Life He was son of a country parson, was born in the province of Ostergotland on 19 Janua ...

. In 1879, the family moved to

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

where Ebba and her sisters attended the . Atterbom became close friends with

Sophie Elkan Sophie Elkan née Salomon (3 January 1853, Gothenburg –5 April 1921, Gothenburg), was a Swedish writer and translator. Life Sophie Salomon was born to the merchant Alexander Salomon and Henriette Abrahamson: her parents had migrated to Swe ...

, and subsequently with

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...

. In the 1890s, she visited

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, where she mastered

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and started giving lessons in the language. She started translating works of Sophie Elkan,

Helena Nyblom Helena Nyblom (7 December 1843 – 9 October 1926) was a Danish-Swedish children's story author. She is perhaps most remembered for ''The Swan Suit.''

, Anna Tengström, and

Per Hallström Per August Leonard Hallström (29 September 1866 – 18 February 1960) was a Swedish author, short-story writer, dramatist, poet and member of the Swedish Academy. He joined the academy in 1908, and served as its Permanent Secretary from 1931 ...

to Swedish. In 1907, she moved with her father to

Kungälv Kungälv () (old no, Konghelle) is a city and the seat of Kungälv Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 22,768 inhabitants in 2010. In 2021, the main Kungälv - Ytterby - Kareby conurbation had a combined population approachin ...

. In 1925, she co-founded the Svensk-italienska Föreningen (the Swedish-Italian Association) in Gothenburg, and she served as the vice-secretary for several decades. From 1928, she taught Italian language studies at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

. From about 1927, Atterbom established herself as a translator. Apart from translating from Italian, she also translated works in English,

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

, and

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

to Swedish. Her translated works from English included works by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

, and

. In 1921, she translated Joyce's ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional alter ...

''. Among her translations from Italian was

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

's ''

I quattro libri dell'architettura ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian. It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated wi ...

''. She translated ''100 lektioner i italienska'' from Danish. After the death of her father in 1937, she returned to Gothenburg and continued teaching language studies. In 1959, she was awarded the

in recognition of her contributions in Italian to the literature of Sweden. Atterbom died in Gothenburg, on 23 August 1961.

Life

References

Further reading