Dan Andersson
- "Black Jim" redirects here and should not be confused with: Jim Black.
| Dan Andersson | |
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| Born | Daniel Andersson 6 April 1888 Ludvika, Sweden |
| Died | 16 September 1920 (aged 32) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupation | poet, author |
| Literary movement | Naturalism |
Daniel "Dan" Andersson (born 6 April 1888 in Skattlösberg, Grangärde parish (in present-day Ludvika Municipality), Dalarna, Sweden, died 16 September 1920 in Stockholm) was a Swedish author and poet. He also set some of his own poems to music. Andersson married primary school teacher Olga Turesson, the sister of artist Gunnar Turesson, in 1918. A nom de plume he sometimes used was Black Jim. Andersson is counted among the Swedish proletarian authors, but his works are not limited to that genre.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Andersson grew up under poor conditions in the village of Skattlösberg where his father, primary school teacher Adolf Andersson and his wife Augusta Scherp (herself previously a teacher), worked in the school. The village is located in the so-called "Finn Woods" of southern Dalarna, where Forest Finns immigrated to cultivate new land. On his father's side, Andersson descended from these Finnish settlers. Andersson took odd jobs during the first years of his life, for instance as a forestry worker and school teacher. It was difficult to make a living. The family had considered trying to find a better life in America, and Andersson was sent there as a 14-year old in 1902 to see if it would be possible for the family to join him. But in a letter from the U.S. he wrote that there were no better opportunities for the family there than in Sweden, upon which his father asked Andersson to return to Sweden. The family moved from Skattlösberg in 1905, but Andersson returned there to live with his parents and siblings 1911-1915. During this period, he wrote a number of stories and poems. Large parts of his Kolarhistorier and Kolvaktarens visor were probably created during this time.
[edit] Brunnsvik
During the years 1914-1915, Andersson studied at the Brunnsvik folk high school, with, among others, future authors Harry Blomberg and Ragnar Jändel. He was also a good friend of Karl Lärka, who would become a well-known documentary photographer. From this time onwards he was to become active as an author, writing poems and songs about his home region, which are read and sung almost a century later in Swedish homes. Gunde Johansson and Thorstein Bergman are among his most well-known interpreters, but he also put some of his own songs to music - perhaps the most famous are Till min syster ("To My Sister") and Jungman Jansson ("Sailor Jansson"). He was able to play the accordion and the violin. He was a co-worker at the Social Democratic newspaper Ny Tid in Gothenburg 1917-1918 and he also translated texts by Rudyard Kipling and Charles Baudelaire into Swedish. Despite his simple upbringing, Andersson was highly educated.
[edit] Death
Dan Andersson died in room 11 at Hotel Hellman in Stockholm on 16 September 1920, where he had gone to look for a job at the newspaper Social-Demokraten. The hotel staff had used hydrogen cyanide against bedbugs and hadn't cleared the room as prescribed. At 3 pm Andersson was found dead. At the same time, insurance inspector Elliott Eriksson from Bollnäs also died. The hotel was located at Bryggaregatan 5 in Stockholm, but was demolished in the 1960s.
Andersson is buried at Lyviken Cemetery in Ludvika.
[edit] Legacy
Dan Andersson's poetry enjoys a broad popularity among the Swedish people because of its naturalist mysticism and searching for God. In 2005, Sofia Karlsson recorded a new interpretation of Andersson's songs, which was awarded with a Grammy both in Sweden and in Denmark, but before then his poems had been sung by a number of artists, including the Hootenanny Singers and Fred Åkerström. In 1988, at the centenary of Andersson's birth, Posten, the Swedish postal service, published two stamps in his honour. In Ludvika, a Dan Andersson week is celebrated the first week of every August. In Ludvika there is also a Dan Andersson museum, and a statue of him. A bust is also to be found at Järntorget in Gothenburg.
This article is mainly a translation of the equivalent article at Swedish Wikipedia.
[edit] His works in English
- Modern Swedish Poetry Part 1 - C.D. Locock (1929) England
- Modern Swedish Short Stories - Madeleine Ekenberg (1934) England
- Charcoal Burner’s Ballad & Other Poems - Caroline Schleef (1943) USA
- Scandinavian Songs And Ballads - Martin S. Allwood (1950) Sweden
- The Last Night in Paindalen - Caroline Schleef (1958) USA
- LP: Swedish Songs - Fred Lane (1975) Sweden
- Dan Andersson in English - Åke Helgesson (1994) Sweden
- Poems of Dan Andersson - Mike McArthur (2003) England
[edit] His life in English
- A History Of Swedish Literature - Alrik Gustafson (1961) USA
- A History Of Swedish Literature - Ingemar Algulin (1989) Sweden
- A History Of Swedish Literature - Lars G. Warme (1996) USA
[edit] External links
Swedish
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dan Andersson |
- Dan Andersson at Project Runeberg.
- Dan Andersson at Swedish Wikisource.
- Works by Dan Andersson at Project Gutenberg.
- Dan Andersson at Swedish music and film.
Streaming audio
- Jungman Jansson at the Internet Archive.
Image files
English
- Dan Andersson at Kuusankoski Public Library.
- The Seven Seas at the Internet Archive. Translated into Swedish by Dan Andersson in 1918.
Translations
