Background
Johan Henrik Kellgren was born in Väfstergötland on December 1, 1751. He was the son of a rural clergyman.
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Johan Henrik Kellgren was born in Väfstergötland on December 1, 1751. He was the son of a rural clergyman.
He studied at the university of Abo, and had already some reputation as a poet when in 1774 he there became a " docent " in aesthetics.
On the institution of the Swedish Academy in 1786 he was appointed one of its first members.
Three years later he removed to Stockholm, where in conjunction with Assessor Carl Lenngren he began in 1778 the publication of the journal Stockholmsposten, of which he was sole editor from 1788 onwards.
His strong satiric tendency led him into numerous controversies, the chief that with the critic Thomas Thorild, against whom he directed his satire Nyt forsok till orimmad vers, where he sneers at the " raving of Shakespeare " and " the convulsions of Goethe, " His lack of humour detracts from the interest of his polemical writings.
His poetical works are partly lyrical, partly dramatic; of the plays the versification belongs to him, the plots being due to Gustavus III.
From about the year 1788 a higher and graver feeling pervades Kell- gren's verses, partly owing to the influence of the works of Lessing and Goethe, but probably more directly due to his controversy with Thorild.
Of his minor poems written before that date the most important are the charming spring-song Vinterns valde lyktar, and the satrical Mina lojen and Man eger ej snille for del man dr galen.
1789, the ode Till Kristina, the fragment Sigwart och Hilma, and the beautiful song Nya skapelsen, both in thought and form the finest of his works.
Among his lyrics are the choicest fruits of the Gustavian age of Swedish letters.
His earlier efforts, indeed, express the superficial doubt and pert frivolousness characteristic of his time; but in the works of his riper years he is no mere " poet of pleasure, " as Thorild contemptuously styled him, but a worthy exponent of earnest moral feeling and wise human sympathies in felicitous and melodius verse. His Samlade skrifter (3 vols. , 1796; a later edition, 1884-1885) were revised by himself.
His correspondence with Rosenstein and with Clewberg was edited by H. Schiick (1886 - 1887and 1894).
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
the Swedish Academy