Background
Erik Axel Karlfeldt was born on July 20, 1864, in Folkama, Dalama, Sweden. He was the son of Erik Erikson Janson and Anna Stina Jansdotter.
752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Karlfeldt studied at Uppsala University.
Erik Axel Karlfeldt was born on July 20, 1864, in Folkama, Dalama, Sweden. He was the son of Erik Erikson Janson and Anna Stina Jansdotter.
Karlfeldt attended schools at his birthplace and at Västerås, where he graduated in 1885. He studied at the University of Uppsala and received his degree in 1898.
Between 1893 and 1896, Karlfeldt taught at the private grammar school at Djursholm and at the school for adult education at Molkom. For a short time, he worked on a Stockholm paper.
After completing his studies, he held a position at the Royal Library in Stockholm for five years. In 1903, he was appointed librarian of the Agricultural Academy. Meanwhile, he had found recognition as a poet, and in 1904 was elected to the Swedish Academy. In 1905, he became a member of the Nobel Institute of the Academy and in 1907 of the Nobel Committee. In 1912, he was appointed permanent secretary of the Academy and henceforth devoted all his time to this position (although he did remain a member of the Nobel Committee) and to his poetry.
Selections of his poetry, translated into English by Charles Wharton Stork under the title Arcadia Borealis, were published in 1938. Karlfeldt wrote a short life of the Swedish poet Lucidor (1909) and a necrology for Carl Fredrik Dahlgren in the proceedings of the Swedish Academy. A collection of his speeches appeared in print shortly after his death in 1931.
Karlfeldt was a clever rhymester with an arcaic, poetic and sonorous language.
In 1916, Karlfeldt married Gerda Holmberg. They had two daughters.