Olof Lagercrantz
{{Short description|Swedish writer, critic, and literary scholar (1911–2002)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Olof Lagercrantz
| image = Olof Lagercrantz.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = {{nowrap|Olof Gustaf Hugo Lagercrantz}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|3|10|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Stockholm, Sweden
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|7|23|1911|3|10|df=yes}}
| death_place = Ekerö, Sweden
| resting_place =
| occupation = Author, critic, publicist
| language =
| alma_mater =
| period = 1935–1996
| genre =
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks = {{plainlist|
- From Hell to Paradise
- Min första krets
}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Martina Ruin|1939}}
| partner =
| children = 5, including Marika and David
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| website =
}}
{{RefImprove|date=May 2022}}
Olof Gustaf Hugo Lagercrantz (10 March 1911 – 23 July 2002) was a Swedish writer, critic, literary scholar (PhD 1951) and publicist (editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter 1960–1975).{{Citation |title=Olof Lagercrantz |date=2 March 2021 |url=http://snl.no/Olof_Lagercrantz |work=Store norske leksikon |language=nb |access-date=23 May 2022}}
Life and career
Lagercrantz was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of bank director {{Ill|Carl Lagercrantz|sv|Carl Lagercrantz (bankman)}}, of the noble Lagercrantz family,{{Cite web |title=Lagercrantz, släkter |url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=10855 |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=National Archives of Sweden – Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon}} and Countess Agnes Hamilton, whose great-grandfather was the prominent Swedish writer Erik Gustaf Geijer.Lars Lönnroth Geijerarvet. En släkthistoria om dikt och galenskap, Atlantis 2019 Lagercrantz married Martina Ruin (born 1921), daughter of Professor Hans Ruin and Karin Sievers, in 1939.{{Cite book |title=Sveriges dödbok 1947-2003 |publisher=Sveriges Släktforskarförbund |year=2005 |edition=CD-ROM version 3.0 |language=sv}} Lagercrantz is the father of actress Marika Lagercrantz and author David Lagercrantz. His sister Lis Asklund was an author, social worker, curator, and program producer for Sveriges Radio. His nephews Lars and Johan Lönnroth are also famous in their own right.
His childhood was dark, under the clouds of his mother's mental illness and later his sister's suicide.
Lagercrantz commanded considerable influence as a critic and publicist. He became an expert of sorts in literary biography, and several of his studies on important Swedish writers are still cornerstones of Swedish literary studies, in particular, his biography of August Strindberg (1979) and his portrait of his friend Gunnar Ekelöf, {{Lang|sv|Jag bor i en annan värld men du bor ju i samma}}.
During the latter part of his professional life, Lagercrantz' concerns in his role as literary critic and cultural pundit progressed from the strictly aesthetic to the political. In 1958, he published a biography of the late poet Stig Dagerman which was severely criticized by a young Beppe Wolgers for being confined to Dagerman's "dark predicament" and not completely representing a man "who paid such great interest to cinema as well as football".{{Quote without source|date=May 2022}} Lagercrantz' political engagement became apparent during his time at Dagens Nyheter, where he was head of the cultural section from 1951 and editor-in-chief from 1960 on. He was an influential, albeit controversial, voice in the political and cultural radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s, assuming a crucial role in the national secularization debate.
Lagercrantz in his public role gave rise to strong emotions. His cultural radicalism in particular was perceived as provocative in light of his aristocratic background. Lagercrantz was widely criticized for the conciliatory and fairly positive appraisals of Communism that he published in Dagens Nyheter after travelling as a journalist to the Soviet Union and China.
Lagercrantz dwelt on parts of this in his autobiographical works. His upper-class childhood and adolescence are the subject of {{Lang|sv|Min första krets}} (1982), and the turbulence of his time at Dagens Nyheter is the topic of his memoir {{Lang|sv|Ett år på sextiotalet}} (1990).
Lagercrantz grew up in Falköping and in 2001 was awarded the title of Honorary Resident of Skaraborg by the Skaraborg Academy in tribute to the fact he had wielded one of the mightiest pens of the 20th century.{{Cite news |date=14 December 2001 |title=Lagercrantz årets skaraborgare |language=sv |work=Sveriges Radio |url=https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/29436 |access-date=23 May 2022}} He was also awarded the Illis quorum by the government of Sweden in 1996.{{Cite web |date=January 2006 |title=Regeringens belöningsmedaljer och regeringens utmärkelse: Professors namn |url=https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/61bab671f59a46af81cb11ee99e0d0eb/regeringens-beloningsmedaljer-och-regeringens-utmarkelse-professors-namn |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102152834/https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/61bab671f59a46af81cb11ee99e0d0eb/regeringens-beloningsmedaljer-och-regeringens-utmarkelse-professors-namn |archive-date=2 November 2021 |access-date=18 May 2022 |website=Regeringskansliet |language=sv}}
Bibliography
- {{Lang|sv|Den döda fågeln}} ("The Dead Bird", 1935, poems) {{OCLC|13259316}}
- {{Lang|sv|Den enda sommaren}} ("The Only Summer", 1937, poems) {{OCLC|8582894}}
- {{Lang|sv|Jungfrun och demonerna}} ("The Maiden and the Demons", 1938, a study of Erik Axel Karlfeldt) {{OCLC|492621585}}
- {{Lang|sv|Trudi}} (1939, novel) {{OCLC|483238582}}
- Finlands sak är vår (1939) {{OCLC|187085656}}
- {{Lang|sv|Möten med bibeln}} ("Facing the Bible", 1941) {{OCLC|487630227}}
- {{Lang|sv|Dikter från mossen}} ("Poems from the Bog", 1943) {{OCLC|186791320}}
- {{Lang|sv|Om kärlek}} ("On Love", 1946) {{OCLC|493959725}}
- {{Lang|sv|Fågelropet ur dimman}} ("The Bird's Call Out of the Fog", 1947, essays) {{OCLC|464968262}}
- {{Lang|sv|Studieplan i svensk lyrik}} ("Syllabus of Swedish Lyric Poetry", 1950) {{OCLC|867827320}}
- Agnes von Krusenstierna (1951, revised 1980, literary study) {{ISSN|0348-6133}}
- {{Lang|sv|Dagbok}} ("Diary", 1954) {{OCLC|470808663}}
- {{Lang|sv|Dikter och dagbok}} ("Poems and Diary", 1955) {{OCLC|185273405}}
- Stig Dagerman (1958, literary study) {{OCLC|492621925}}
- {{Lang|sv|Ensamheter i öst och väst}} ("Solitudes in the East and the West", 1961, travel literature) {{OCLC|186017473}}
- {{Lang|sv|Svenska lyriker}} ("Swedish Lyric Poets", 1961) {{OCLC|185734048}}
- {{Lang|sv|Linjer}} ("Lines", 1962, poems) {{OCLC|483238448}}
- {{Lang|sv|Från helvetet till paradiset}} ("From Hell to Paradise", 1964, a study of Dante) {{OCLC|312822274}}
- {{Lang|sv|Dikter 1935–1962}} ("Poems 1935–1962", 1964) {{OCLC|473451351}}
- {{Lang|sv|Den pågående skapelsen}} ("The Creation in Progress", 1966, a study of Nelly Sachs) {{OCLC|186114862}}
- {{Lang|sv|Opinionslägen}} ("Current Opinions", 1968) {{OCLC|13250136}}
- {{Lang|sv|Att finnas till}} ("To Exist", 1970, a study of James Joyce) {{OCLC|925651837}}
- {{Lang|sv|Tröst för min älskling}} ("Comfort for My Beloved", 1971) {{OCLC|187104206}}
- {{Lang|sv|Tretton lyriker och Fågeltruppen}} ("Thirteen Lyric Poets and the Troop of Birds", 1973) {{ISBN|9789146119692}}
- {{Lang|sv|Enhörningen}} ("The Unicorn", 1977, prose) {{ISBN|9789146129073}}
- {{Lang|sv|Från Aeneas till Ahlin}} ("From Aeneas to Ahlin", 1978) {{ISBN|9789146131670}}
- August Strindberg (1979, literary study) {{ISBN|9789146134770}}
- {{Lang|sv|Eftertankar om Strindberg}} ("Second Thoughts on Strindberg", 1980) {{ISBN|9789170543531}}
- {{Lang|sv|Min första krets}} ("My First Circle", 1982, autobiography) {{ISBN|9789146141051}}
- {{Lang|sv|Om konsten att läsa och skriva}} ("On the Art of Reading and Writing", 1985, essay) {{ISBN|9789146148005}}
- {{Lang|sv|Färd med mörkrets hjärta}} ("A Journey with the Heart of Darkness", 1987, a study of Joseph Conrad) {{ISBN|9789146154501}}
- {{Lang|sv|Ett år på sextiotalet}} ("A Year in the 60s", 1990, autobiography) {{ISBN|9789146158646}}
- {{Lang|sv|En blödande ros}} ("A Bleeding Rose", 1991, selected poems) {{ISBN|9789146160090}}
- {{Lang|sv|Att läsa Proust}} ("Reading Proust", 1992) {{ISBN|9789146164159}}
- {{Lang|sv|Jag bor i en annan värld, men du bor ju i samma}} ("I Live in Another World, but You Live in the Same", 1994, a study of Gunnar Ekelöf) {{ISBN|9789146165453}}
- {{Lang|sv|Mina egna ord}} ("My Own Words", 1994, selection of articles from Dagens Nyheter) {{ISBN|9789146165477}}
- {{Lang|sv|Dikten om livet på den andra sidan}} ("The Poem of Life on the Other Side", 1996, a study of Emanuel Swedenborg) {{ISBN|9789146169321}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{The Nordic Council's Literature Prize}}
{{August Strindberg}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagercrantz, Olof}}
Category:Nordic Council Literature Prize winners
Category:Writers from Stockholm
Category:Swedish literary critics
Category:Swedish newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Swedish newspaper editors
Category:Dagens Nyheter editors