Career
Following his breakthrough in 1949 with Snölegend ("Snow legend") he was considered as one of the leading 20th century swedish poets, and his poetry have often been compared to the works of the nobel prize laureats Harry Martinson and Tomas Tranströmer. Aspenström claimed that his motivation for writing was "writing for his cat", but apparently hinted that he meant someone else with that. In 1989, together with Lars Gyllensten and Kerstin Ekman, he resigned from the Swedish Academy because of the academy’s response to the Salman Rushdie controversy, which was perceived as weak.
He however claimed that this was not the sole reason for his resignation, but rather one amongst several other.