Anna Myrberg

Anna Myrberg (1878 – 1931) was a Swedish author and song lyricist.^[1]

Career

Anna Myrberg

Much of Myrberg's writing appeared under the pseudonym of Svarta Masken (The Black Mask). After training to be a photoengraver, she found work at a photography studio and a Stockholm newspaper. Her debut as a poet was the 1919 collection Svarta Maskens Dårdikter (The Black Mask’s Idiot Poems). She published several volumes of poetry and humor,^[1] including two books about Willy Anderson, a boy from the south side of Stockholm.^[2]^[3] The second of these was filmed as the 1929 movie “Ville Andesons Äventyr” (Willy Anderson’s Adventure). She also contributed articles and poems to the humor magazine Kasper.^[1]

Myrberg wrote the lyrics for the well-known songs Lördagsvalsen (The Saturday Waltz) and Livet I Finnskogarna (Life in the Finnish Woods). In 1972 the Swedish actor John Harryson recorded an album of old-time Swedish comedy with three songs by Svarta Masken: Bröllopet i Flänga, Lördagsvalsen and Stora fötter.^[4]

Selected lyrics

Bröllopet i Flänga
Livet i Finnskogarna
Lördagsvalsen
Turalleri-Turallera

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Lena Persson’s foreword in Svarta Maskens Dårdikter: samt humoresker och slagdängor i urval (Stockholm: Prisma, 1984).
^ Svärjes historia: upptekknad i kårta drag av södergrabben Ville Andeson by Anna Myrberg, (Stockholm: Åhlén & Åkeslund, 1923).
^ Ville Andeson blir pracktisk by Anna Myrberg, (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1929).
^ John Harrysson sjunger bondkomikernas visor (Stockholm: Knäppupp, 1972).