Background
Vilhelm Moberg was born on a farm to a not very rich family; he was the fourth child in the family that all in all had 7 children (only 3 survived to a mature age). Till the age of nine his family lived in a solider cottage in Moshultamåla which his father got in 1888. Being a solider Moberg's father wanted his son to follow his steps. Relatives of his mother Ida Moberg lived in America and often sent money to Moberg's family. In 1907 his family moved to the home village of his mother, Ida Charlotta Moberg, which was born to the family of peasants. In the early childhood Moberg got interested in reading. He read everything he could find in the house, starting from the Bible and Catechism, ending with fragments of articles in old newspapers which were used as wallpaper. He made up stories of his own.
In 1940 he bought a mansion Söderäng in Tomta.
Education
He organised a literature club where he and his friends met together and exchanged books. When he was 13 he won a literacy contest which was organised by local youth newspaper.
In 1916 he was strongly tempted to move to the USA to his relatives, but he decided to stay in Sweden. In order to convince him to say, his parents sold pigs and used revenue to allow him to enter school. He suffered Spanish flu for a half a year in 1918.
He got limited schooling from 1906 to 1912, for four months each year. In school he was interested mostly in history and free writing, than in anything else.
Moberg studied at Kronoberg County Folk High School in Grimslov from 1916 to 1917 in the period of the First World War. He visited Katrineholms Praktiska Skola, a private school in Katrineholm from 1917 to 1918.
Career
After his studies he started to work as a journalist. He was a very active member of society, he was engaged in different demonstrations, and he gave a hand to those who suffered from injustice. His works reflect the life, customs and traditions of working class and needy people. He wrote about people from provinces and their life in the countryside. Serving in the army he opposed existing order and was arrested.
At the age of 13 he published his first work as a result of a contest organised by the newspaper "Brokiga blad".
In the youth he cooperated with different newspaper and was a columnist in the magazine "Såningsmannen" and in the newspaper "Smålandsposten".
After his graduation from college he got a job in a forestry. Then he worked for the glass factory "Modala glasbruk".
In October 1920 he got a job in the newspaper "Arvika Nyheter".
In 1921 he was recruited to the infantry in Vaxjo, which he used for writing some satirical lampoons which appeared in the newspaper "Vaxjobladet".
In autumn 1922 after some controversies with the owner of "Vadstena" he left for the "Nya Vaxjobladet" in Alvesta as a local editor.
In 1926 Moberg won success after the first publication of the comedy "Kassabrist".
In 1927 he published the first novel "Raskens" based on his personal experience. After that he dedicated himself fully to writing.
In great degree his works are autobiographical.
In his works of the late 1920s one may see that a source of inspiration for Moberg was his own childhood, many of his books were critical enough and one part of them has a pacifist background.
Then he became more serious, started to think over the power and war. When Russian-Finnish war broke out he went to Finland to see what was going on. His articles filled with criticism of Moscow’s policy were banned from publication. But the newspaper "Gцteborgs Handels-tidning" accepted and published Moberg's articles about Stalin and Hitler. After the World War II he criticised the politics of Sweden and those people who hailed new life style in Soviet Union.
In the 1960s he covered different types of scandals in his articles.
There he wrote his famous work "The Emigrants". In 1948 he set off to America in order to collect material for his new project and he was impressed very much by the democratic life style there. Later he returned to Sweden. He took part in demonstrations against Vietnam war in the 1970s. At the end of his life he dedicated himself to the theme of history in his works.
Last years of Moberg's life weren't so bright, he was quite depressed and suffered creative crisis, so that eventually he committed suicide: he drown himself in the lake near his house.
Religion
Being a young man Moberg was disappointed in Christian faith but his attachment to the Bible as a literary work went on throughout his writing career.
Politics
Being young he was a member of a temperance society. His political views are clearly seen in his works. He held to a republican (anti-royalist) views and actively participated in Kejne and Haijby affairs. He was anti-totalitarian and liberalist. He supported giving the right of voice to illiterate classes. In the 1950s he debated upon Swedish monarchy, corruption and bureaucracy, condemned Gustav II Adolf and Karl XII for the mass massacre. Criticised Soviet Union's war against Finland and its policy.
Views
He underwent noticeable schism between the two worlds in which he lived being a teenager, between the old peasant community with its values of conservatism, self-reliance, and religious conformity, and a new world of his workplace with its modern ideas of atheism and radical politics.