Background

Evert Taube was born on March 12, 1890, in Gothenburg, Sweden, and grew up on the country's west coast, where his father kept a lighthouse. He was the son of Carl Gunnar Taube and Julia Sofia Jacobsdotter.

Education

Taube studied art in school, but at the age of 17, he ran away to Stockholm, where he, according to the tradition, spent his first night by the grave of Bellman. Unsuccessfully he tried to make a living as a painter, and when his father heard about his whereabouts, Taube faced the ultimatum of going back to school or becoming a sailor. He chose the latter and was to spend the coming years onboard a number of freighters.

He received an honorary doctorate from Gothenburg University in 1960.

Career

Evert Taube sailed around the world, settling in Argentina for five years (1910-1915), where he learned to play guitar and speak Spanish and Italian. He then returned to Sweden, where he published his first ballad in 1917 and his first book, the collection of novellas "Inte precis om kvinnorna" (1918) ("Not exactly about women"). This launched his career as an author of books and especially of ballads that drew on his previous travels.

Not surprisingly given his background, he started with sailors' ballads (including those from the point of view of Taube's alter ego Fritiof Andersson), and throughout his career focused on recurrent themes of love, nature, and the sea. He then moved on to Carl Michael Bellman's tradition, which he would continue to expand. Taube's "Calle Schwenens vals" ("Calle Schwenen's waltz") in 1931 was hugely successful and his first major national breakthrough. The song was often played on the radio and sung at parties, and Taube earned the moniker of 'Swedish national poet.' He rose further in prominence in the 1940s, for example via his new and more mature alter ego Rönnerdahl.

In the 1950s he expanded his repertoire and style into medieval Provençal and Renaissance Italy. His work evokes an international aura, due partly to his earlier foreign journeys and other trips he made throughout his life to far-flung locales. Around this time, he also began to earn many prizes, including the Bellman Prize of the Swedish Academy (1960) and honorary doctorates.

Taube kept on writing songs, recording records, and engaging in environmental issues until a few years before his death in 1976. He made his last big tour in 1969 and played in public for the last time ever in 1973.

Achievements

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  Evert Taube is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century. He captured the soul of the nation in his songs and lyrics. Evert Taube's adventurous life gave him the inspiration to most of his songs, describing the Swedish nature and archipelagos, or Argentina's vast Pampas, the hills of Italy, and the roaring sea. Evert Taube also distinguished himself as a fine painter. He was honored with a number of awards during his lifetime including Bellman Award from the Swedish Academy, and society is created bearing his name.
  
  The statue of Evert Taube was donated on the 100th year memory of his birth. It embodied all of his important traits. He is holding his lute, is dressed in a poncho wearing a sombrero, pointing into the direction of Södermalm and Riddarfjärden, his very much loved home.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sea Ballads and Other Songs 1940
  • Hjärtats nyckel heter sång 1994
  • Strövtåg i Ranrike 1982
  • Evert Taube: Tillagnan 1981

• music

  • Klassiker
  • Fritiof & Carmencita 1997
  • Sjösalavår 1949
  • Vals ombord 2000

Connections

Evert married Astri Bergman Taube, a painter and sculptress, in 1925. They had four children: Per-Evert Arvid Joachim Taube, Rose Marie Astrid Elisabet Taube, Ellinor Gunnel Astri Elisabeth Taube, and Sven-Bertil Taube.

Father:

Carl Gunnar Taube

Mother:

Julia Sofia (Jacobsdotter) Taube

Wife:

Astri Bergman Taube

Son:

Per-Evert Arvid Joachim Taube

Daughter:

Rose Marie Astrid Elisabet Taube

Daughter:

Ellinor Gunnel Astri Elisabeth Taube

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, vol. 212
  2011