Folke Fridell

Bust of Folke Fridell outside Ljungby library.

Folke Ivar Valter Fridell (1 October 1904 – 12 August 1985) was a Swedish writer of the proletarian school and syndicalist.

Biography

Fridell was born into a large family in Lagan, Kronoberg County. At age 13, he started working in a textile factory, where he would remain until 1946 when he quit in order to focus on writing.

At a young age, Fridell joined the IOGT. In 1921, he participated in the formation of and was made secretary of a local branch of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (Sveriges arbetares centralorganisation, SAC). When the Syndicalist Workers' Federation (Syndikalistiska arbetarefederationen, SAC) broke from SAC in 1929, Fridell followed; he became a member of SAC once again when SAF merged back into SAC in 1938.

In the 1930's, Fridell started writing for Arbetare-Kuriren, the newspaper of SAF. After the reunion of SAC and SAF in 1938, he contributed frequently to Arbetaren, SAC's newspaper. He was also active as a lecturer and a delegate at several SAC congresses; from 1942 until 1946, he was a deputy in the organisation's central committee.

Fridell debuted as a fiction writer with the novel Tack för mig – grottekvarn in 1945, and his breakthrough came with his second novel, the strongly autobiographical Död mans hand from 1946. In his writings, Fridell was often critical towards the monotonous and repetitive work in the age of automation; other frequent themes are juvenile delinquency, rural flight and dystopian views of the future.

Fridell died in 1985 at the age of 80 and is buried in the cemetery of Berga church in Lagan.