Sara Adéla Lidman (30December 192317June 2004) was a Swedish writer.

Early life

Born in Missenträsk, a village in present

Skellefteå Municipality Skellefteå Municipality () is a municipality in Västerbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Skellefteå. History Most of the amalgamations leading to the present municipality took place in 1967 when the then "City of Skelle ...

, Lidman was raised in the

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the provi ...

region of northern

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 studied at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, where her studies were interrupted when she contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. She achieved her first great success with the novel (''The Tar Still''). In this work and in her second novel (The Cloudberry Field), she explores themes of alienation and isolation. Her early novels are focused on the difficult conditions facing poor farmers in the northern Swedish province of

during the nineteenth century.

Career

Sara Lidman is arguably one of the most important writers of the Swedish language in the twentieth century. This is especially so because of her innovative method of combining spoken vernaculars with Biblical language in a way closely tied to a certain kind of popular imaginary, while also integrating the worldly and the spiritual. In connection with her first four novels, she wrote extensively on political subjects, always from a strongly socialist standpoint. She engaged in protest against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

(including traveling to

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

and participating in the

Russell Tribunal The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, Russell–Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private People's Tribunal organised in 1966 by Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner, and ...

) and against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. She supported the widely influential miners' strikes of 1969–1970 and was active in the Communist and environmentalist movements. Between 1977 and 1985, she wrote a series of seven novels dealing with the colonization process of the north of Sweden. She was awarded a number of prizes, including the

Nordic Council's Literature Prize The Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded for a work of literature written in one of the languages of the Nordic countries, that meets "high literary and artistic standards". Established in 1962, the prize is awarded every year, and is worth ...

for her work . Sara Lidman

Bibliography

*, 1953. (''The Tar Still'') *, 1955. (The ''Cloudberry Field'') *, 1958. (''The Rain Bird'') translated by Elspeth Harley Schubert, Hutchinson, 1963 *, 1960. (To Hold A Mistletoe) *, 1961. (''My Son and I'') *, 1964. (''With Five Diamonds''), 1971. *, 1966, Reporting. (''Conversations in Hanoi''), 1967. *, 1968, Interviews. (''Mine'') *, 1970, Drama. *, 1977. (''Thy Servant Is Listening'') *'' Vredens barn'', 1979. (Wrath's Children) *, 1981. (''Naboth's Stone'') translated by

Joan Tate Joan Tate née Eames (23 September 1922 – 6 June 2000) was a prolific author and translator, translating works by many leading Swedish and Swedish-speaking Finnish writers into English. Alongside her own fiction and nonfiction writing, Tat ...

, Norvik Press, 1989 *, 1983. (The wonderfull man) *, 1985. (''The Iron Crown'') *, 1996. (''The Root of Life'') *, 1999. (''Innocence's Minute'') *, 2003. (''Body And Soul'')

Early life

Career

Bibliography

Notes

References

Further reading