Ebba Ruzsica Sörbom was born Ruzsica Schreiber to a Jewish family in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia. As a child she spoke German, Hungarian and Serbian.
In 1944, Sörbom was taken to a concentration camp where his mother and younger brother were gassed. Despite everything, Sörbom survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and came to Sweden in 1945.
She studied drama at Uppsala University, worked with drama therapy at Ulleråker Hospital and provided information about the Holocaust in schools.
In 1994, Sörbom received a cultural scholarship from Uppsala Municipality and in 1997 a scholarship from the Swedish Writers' Fund to study at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Vienna.
Her debut book Bortom minnet, bortomglömskan was published in 1988. Through her poetry, Ebba Sörbom has reflected personal memories of the concentration camps and given voice to the survivors.
Carl David af Wirsén was born in Vallentuna and later in life became an associate professor of literary history in 1868 and a lecturer in Swedish and Latin at the Högre Allmänna Löroverket in Uppsala in 1870.
Wirsén published Dikter (1876) and later a further six volumes of traditional idyllic poetry and several collections of religious poems.
The cemetery in Uppsala was honored with a poem and Wirsén wrote the text of the hymn "En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt" (Swedish Hymnal, hymn 201).
Wirsén was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1879 and became its permanent secretary in 1884. In this position, with his pronounced conservatism, he came to adopt an attitude that was dismissive of contemporary literature.
As a literary reviewer for Post- och Inrikes Tidningar and Vårt Land, Wirsén was able to express a reactionary view of literature for many years. A selection of his reviews can be found in Kritiker (1901).
Image description: Carl David af Wirsén, Stockholm ca 1880-ca 1890. Photo: Johannes Jaeger / UUBThe image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and popular fairy tale poets at the turn of the century.
She was born in Copenhagen in 1843, the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. Her father was a painter and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and her mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterized by intellectuality and aesthetics.
She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala, where their home soon became a gathering place for artistically minded people from all over the Nordic region.
Nyblom published a number of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough came in the late 1890s with her fairy tales.
Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noticed and criticized in the media.
Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer for magazines such as Nordisk tidskrift, Ny svensk tidskrift, Ord och bild and Idun.
In 1922, the autobiographical work Mina levnadsminnen was published.
John Bauer's illustration from 1913, for Helena Nyblom's "The changelings" in "Among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia commons.
Vershuset on Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864 onwards. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia commons.
Anita Nathorst was active in the Christian student and high school movement and a friend of Karin Boye, who called her her 'spiritual mother'. Boye had a love for her, but it was an unrequited love.
Nathorst studied in Uppsala and became the first female theol.lic. in church history. Her collection of poems was published in 1926.
Nathorst was diagnosed with breast cancer at an early age and was treated by the doctor Iwan Bratt in Alingsås. They began a love affair in the mid-1930s. However, the love affair ended and Nathorst bought an apartment in Skåne. Until it was vacant, it was a difficult time for her in Bratt's home and Karin Boye acted as a support for her.
Anita Nathorst died in Malmö nursing home in the summer of 1941, just a few months after Karin Boye.
The following poem, written by Karin Boye, is called "Hur kan jag säga..." (How can I say...) and is included in the posthumously published collection De sju dödssynderna och andra efterlämnade dikter. The collection was published in 1941 and the poem is addressed to Anita.
How can I tell if your voice is beautiful.
I just know, that it penetrates me
and will make me tremble like a leaf
and tear me apart and blow me up.
What do I know about your skin and your limbs.
It just shakes me that they are yours,
so that for me there is no sleep and rest,
until they are mine.
Image description: Anita Nathorst, year unknown. Photo: Unknown photographer / From private collection [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Gustaf Fröding was born at Alsters manor in Värmland and was deeply rooted in Värmland's mill and manor life through his family. He came to Uppsala in 1880 and lived at Övre slottsgatan 13 in a farmhouse and took a single exam. Fröding joined the radical circles of the Verdandi association and wrote parodic poems and comradely songs.
He returned to Karlstad where, after writing notices in various newspapers, he was employed by Karlstadstidningen. An inheritance in 1888 brought financial independence and Fröding left his employment.
Between 1889 and 1890, Fröding spent time in a 'mental institution' in Görlitz due to mental problems. It was there that he experienced his first major creative period, when the bulk of his debut collection of poems, Gitarr och dragharmonika, was completed, making him Sweden's foremost poet at the time.
The following example of Fröding's poetry, entitled "I ungdomen", is taken from Gitarr och dragharmonika, 2nd edition, 1893:
The river sparkles so beautifully,
it chirps so merrily in the furrow.
Here I lie lazy, like a spoiled son
in the lap of my mother nature.
It sings and smells and shines and smiles
from earth and sky and everything I see.
It is as if the wind carries a message to me
about happy days, which are striped,
my blood is in turmoil, I think I am in love
- in whom? - alas in everything that breathes.
I wanted everything in heaven and earth
was close to my heart in the form of a girl.
In 1894 New Poems was published and in 1896 Splashes and Tabs. However, his health deteriorated and Fröding was hospitalized at Ulleråkers Hospital from 1896-1905.
Gustaf Fröding died on February 8, 1911 and was buried in the Old Cemetery in Uppsala on February 12. After the burial in Klara Church in Stockholm, the coffin was taken by special train to Uppsala. In his speech, Archbishop Nathan Söderblom said the following words at the coffin:
"Three little books came out - and a whole language has grief".
Many of the people of Uppsala met the coffin when it arrived in Uppsala. Then the coffin, wrapped in torchlight in the winter twilight, was taken to the cemetery. Erik Axel Karlfeldt spoke at the grave.
