(Presentazione di Gunnar Ahlstrom. Bibliografia. Traduzion...)
Presentazione di Gunnar Ahlstrom. Bibliografia. Traduzione di Emma Luzzati . 8vo pp. 456 Canalini rotti (Cracked front and back hinges) Molto Buono (Very Good) Premio Nobel per la Letteratura 1916
OBRAS ESCOGIDAS. ENDIMION. LOS PALADINES DE CARLOS XII. SAN JORGE Y EL DRAGON. LA PEREGRINACION DE SANTA BRIGIDA. EL BOSQUE SUSURRA. EL TRONCO DE LOS FOLKUNGA.
Carl Gustaf Verner Von Heidenstam was a Swedish author of lyric poetry and historical novels.
Background
The ancestor of Heidenstam was a royal physician, having received the title, took the name von Heidenstam. Werner von Verner von Heidenstam was born on July 6, 1859, the son of aristocratic parents. His father was an engineer specializing in the construction of lighthouses. In his childhood he often spent vacations on Lake Vettern, 250 km from Stockholm, where the family lived in the winter. Nevertheless, the writer considered the estate in Olshamar to be the place where he spent his childhood. In the same place, there was a good library in which he got acquainted with the works of Xenophon, Tacitus and Plutarch.
Education
Heidenstam studied at the Beskovo school. He was a gifted student, but because of poor health (Heidenstam suffered from dyslexia), his assessments also began to deteriorate. In 1876-1878 he traveled to the Middle East and Western Europe together with his cousin Ernst. He studied painting in Paris.
Career
He returned to Sweden in 1887 and debuted the following year with a book of poetry, Pilgrimage and Wander-years, which made him famous. These poems stood in the sharpest contrast to the sober, pessimistic Swedish literature of the time. In 1892 he published an autobiographical novel, Hans Alienus, in which the hero searches for an alternative to the hedonistic way of life Heidenstam had earlier celebrated. In his second volume of poetry, Dikter (1895), he moved toward nationalism. Heidenstam's historical fiction begins with The Charles Men (1897 - 1898), stories concerning Charles XII's last years, one of the darkest periods in Swedish history. The Tree of the Folkungs (1905 - 1907), perhaps his greatest novel, is a study of an aristocratic Swedish state emerging from barbarism. His greatest collection of poems, Nya Dikter (1915), demonstrates a clear, classical form far different from his earlier poetry. Except for a book of childhood memories published posthumously, Heidenstam wrote nothing in the last 25 years of his life. He died on May 20, 1940.
Achievements
He received the 1916 Nobel Prize in literature. In 1912, Heydenstam was admitted to the Swedish Academy.
In his work The Charles Men Heidenstam attempted to justify the self-sacrifice of the Swedes in following their King by showing that man achieves his greatest stature in moments of trial and suffering for his country.
Personality
Heidenstam's poetry celebrated the joy of life and individualism. The exotic subject matter, taken from his years in the Orient and the Southern Europe, as well as in the literature. In articles Heidenstam advocated a literature that combined fantasy, imagination, and a sense of the beautiful with a "bold, drastic realism. " His call was quickly answered by young writers, some of whom, with Heidenstam, created a new golden age in Swedish poetry. Like all his historical novels, it is distinguished by powerful character portrayal and a sensuous evocation of the past. Heidenstam dreamed of arousing in his countrymen some of the greatness of the past, which, he felt, was absent in a Sweden moving swiftly into the industrial age. But he failed in his role as "poet chieftain" and found himself more and more isolated from his times. Since the early 1930's Heidenstam began suffered from psychological problems. He had bouts of anger, often with speech problems (he could not find the words). After his 75th birthday, his condition completely deteriorated - he suffered from attacks of sudden anxiety and hallucinations.
Connections
Heidenstam was considered at one time "ladies' man. " He was married three times. His first marriage was with Emilia Uggla, then with Olga Viberg and Greta Schoberg. In addition to these three marriages, he had a long relationship with Ellen Belfrage, who bore him a son, and Keith Bang, with who he lived for 20 years.
