Background
Gustaf Munch-Petersen grew up in a rich and respectable home. He was son of Valfrid Palmgren, a Swedish born Associate Professor in Swedish at Copenhagen University and Jon Julius Munch-Petersen, Professor in Engineering Research at the Polytechnic School.
Education
He graduated from Gymnasium in 1930 and thereafter started several academic courses, but none could capture his interest for more than a short period of time.
Career
He wrote surreal prose-poems, considered groundbreaking in his time, which have inspired later writers. He got his debut as a writer with ”Det nøgne menneske” (The Naked Human) in 1932. He also got his pictures on show at different exhibitions in 1932.
In 1937 he joined the International Brigades and fought in the Spanish Civil War, where he fell the next year.
In 1937, he was imprisoned in Butyrka prison on charges of sabotage, where he died of tuberculosis in 1940. died in 1940s Moscow during Joseph Stalin’s purges.