Bo Johannes Edfelt (21 December 1904 – 27 August 1997) was a Swedish writer, poet, translator and literary critic. A native of Tibro, Edfelt was elected to be a member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

in 1969, occupying seat No. 17. He succeeded

Erik Lindegren Erik Lindegren (August 5, 1910 – May 31, 1968) was a Swedish author, poet, critical writer and member of the Swedish Academy (1962–68, chair 17). Grandson of composer Johan Lindegren. Lindegren was born in Luleå, Norrbotten County, the s ...

and, following his death, was succeeded by Horace Engdahl. Amongst other writings, Edfelt translated works by

Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...

Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem " Grodek", which he wr ...

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

Andreas Gryphius Andreas Gryphius (german: Andreas Greif; 2 October 161616 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque ...

, T. S. Eliot and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

Biography

Youth

Edfelt was the son of lieutenant August Edfelt and Ellen Hellner. He grew up in Skara, where he studied Latin and Greek at the senior high school. In fall 1923, he studied Nordic Languages at Lund University. He also attended public lectures in Philosophy and History of Literature. From 1924 to 1930, with exception from his military service in 1925–26, Edfelt studied Nordic Languages, English, German, History of Literature and Pedagogics, including a course in History of Philosophy, at Uppsala university. During this period, he attended student circles that discussed Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung.

Early career

After he had taken his master's degree in Uppsala in spring 1930, Edfelt moved to Stockholm. The financial crisis following the

Wall Street crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

soon made its impact on the Swedish labor market, and in the beginning of the 30s Edfelt earned his living by writing literary reviews. In autumn 1931, he was hired as a temporary-staff master at the municipal school in Storvik in Gästrikland. During winter 1930–31, Edfelt in Stockholm became acquainted with the female artist Hélène Apéria, to whom he later would dedicate his collection ''Aftonunderhållnng'' (Evening Entertainment). On 2 March 1932 the couple married at Nyloftet in Skansen in Stockholm. In 1933 Edfelt temporary moved to the small town of Mariefred, where he completed his collection ''Högmässa'' (High Mass) under observation from the older poet

Bertil Malmberg Bertil Frans Harald Malmberg (13 August 1889 - 11 February 1958) was a Swedish writer, poet, and actor. He was born in Härnösand to Teodor Malmberg and Hanna Roman. Malmberg is the 1956 winner of the Dobloug Prize, a literature prize awarde ...

, who had settled down in the country idyll after his years in Munich.

Poetry

Early Books

In 1923, Edfelt made his debut with the poetry collection ''Gryningsröster'' (Dawn Voices) 1923, when he was only 19 years old. Then followed the collections ''Unga Dagar'' (Young Days) 1925 and ''Ansikten'' (Faces) 1929. Except the classics, he was influenced by

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and Poetry, poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''Th ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including '' Emil and the Detectives''. He received ...

Vilhelm Ekelund Vilhelm Ekelund (October 14, 1880 – September 3, 1949) was a Swedish poet. Career The works of Ekelund were influenced by Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emanuel Swedenborg. His early career was lyrical, and though not widely re ...

, Harriet Löwenhielm och

Birger Sjöberg Birger Sjöberg (1885–1929) was a Swedish poet, novelist and songwriter, whose best-known works include the faux-naïf song collection ''Fridas Bok'' (Frida's Book) and the novel ''Kvartetten Som Sprängdes'' (The Quartet That Split Up), a s ...

Breakthrough

Edfelt's mature poetry might be described as traditionalistic in

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

but modernistic in

imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory ima ...

. He got his major breakthrough in 1934 with ''Högmassa'' (High Mass), which was reviewed in many Swedish dailies. By that time, Edfelt was influenced by Swedish poets such as

, Bo Bergman and

Erik Axel Karlfeldt Erik Axel Karlfeldt (20 July 1864 – 8 April 1931) was a Swedish poet whose highly symbolist poetry masquerading as regionalism was popular and won him the 1931 Nobel Prize in Literature posthumously after he had been nominated by Nathan Söderb ...

but also by international celebrities such as

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

and T. S. Eliot. Another characteristic trait for Edfelt's poetry from the 1930s are innumerous allusions to literature ranging from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

and ancient tragic playwrights to

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

and

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. Sometimes Edfelt even re-uses a part of the metric structure from older Swedish poets in order to create a certain mood. ''Aftonunderhållning'' (Evening Entertainment) 1932, ''I Denna Natt'' (This Very Night) 1936, ''Vintern Är Lång'' (The Winter Is Long) 1939 and ''Sång för Reskamrater'' (Song for Travelling Companions) 1941 all belong to the same creative period as ''Högmässa''. The contrast between dark human suffering and the redeeming flame of love distinguishes these books.

A New Direction

In the collections ''Elden och Klyftan'' (The Fire and the Cleft) 1943 and ''Bråddjupt Eko'' (Precipitous Echo) 1947, Edfelt's poetry becomes more introspective.Lilja, ''Själens palimpsest.'' From ''Hemliga slagfält'' (Secret Battlefields) 1952 onwards, there is an element of prose poetry in his collections.

References

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Gryningsröster'' (1923) * ''Unga dagar'' (1925) * ''Ansikten'' (1929) * ''Aftonunderhållning'' (1932) * ''Högmässa'' (1934) * ''I denna natt'' (1936) * ''Vintern är lång'' (1939) * ''Sång för reskamrater'' (1941) * ''Elden och klyftan'' (1943) * ''Bråddjupt eko'' (1947) * ''Hemliga slagfält'' (1952) * ''Under Saturnus'' (1956) * ''Utblick'' (1958) * ''Insyn'' (1962) * ''Ådernät'' (1968) * ''Dagar och nätter'' (1983) * ''Följeslagare'' (1989) * ''Mötesplatser'' (1992) * ''Brännpunkter'' (1996) * ''Dikter'' (2004)

Prose

* ''Dostojevski'' (1936) * ''Strövtåg'' (1941) * ''Heinrich Heine'' (1955) * ''Årens spegel'' (1963) * ''Birger Sjöberg'' (1971) * ''Profiler och episoder'' (1973)

External links

Blackbird's Nest — Johannes Edfelt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edfelt, Johannes 1904 births 1997 deaths People from Tibro Municipality Members of the Swedish Academy Swedish-language writers Swedish literary critics Swedish translators Swedish poets Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century translators 20th-century Swedish poets Swedish male poets 20th-century Swedish male writers