Ebba Ruzsica Sörbom was born as Ruzsica Schreiber in a Jewish family in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia. As a child, she spoke German, Hungarian and Serbian.
In 1944, Sörbom was taken to concentration camps where her mother and younger brother were killed in the gas chambers. After all, 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 informed about the Holocaust in schools.
In 1994 Sörbom received a cultural scholarship from the municipality of Uppsala and in 1997 a scholarship from the Writers' Foundation to study at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Vienna.
The debut book "Bortom minnet, bortom glömskan" came out in 1988. Ebba Sörbom has, through her poetry, portrayed personal memories of the concentration camps and given voice to the survivors.
Carl David af Wirsén was born in Vallentuna and became associate Professor in literary history in 1868 and lecturer in Swedish and Latin at the higher grammar school in Uppsala in 1870.
Wirsén published "Dikter" (1876) and later six more volumes of traditional idyllic poetry and several collections of religious poems.
The cemetery in Uppsala was given a poem and Wirsén wrote the text for the hymn "En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt" (Svenska Psalmboken, Psalm 201).
Wirsén was elected as a member of the Swedish Academy in 1879 and became its permanent secretary in 1884. As a member of the Academy, he came with his conservatism to take on a contemporary literature-repellent stance.
As a literary reviewer in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar and in Vårt Land, Wirsén could for many years express a reactionary literature view. 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 / UUB [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and appreciated fairytale poems at the turn of the century.
She was born in Copenhagen in 1843 and was the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. The father was a painter and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterised by intellectuality and aesthetics.
She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala where their home soon became a focal point for artistically oriented people from all over the Nordic region.
He published a series of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough was at the end of the 1890th century with her fairy tales.
Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noted and criticized in the media.
Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer in magazines, such as Nordic Magazine, new Swedish magazine, Word and image and Idun.
In 1922 the autobiographical work My Memories of life was published.
John Bauer's illustration from 1913, to Helena Nybloms "Bortbytingarna" in "among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The verse house at Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons.
Anita Nathorst was active in the Christian student and high school movement and friends with Karin Boye who called her her "spiritual mother". Boye had love for her, but it was an unrequited love.
Nathorst studied in Uppsala and became the first female B.A.. Lic. In Church history. In 1926 her poetry collection was published.
Nathorst suffered from breast cancer early and was treated by doctor Iwan Bratt in Alingsås. They began a love affair in the mid-1930s. However, the love affair ended and Nathorst got an apartment in Skåne. Until it was free, it was a difficult time for her in Bratt's home and Karin Boye then served as a support for her.
Anita Nathorst died at Malmö Nursing home in the summer of 1941, just a few months after Karin Boye.
The following poem, written by Karin Boye, is called "How can I say..." which is in the posthumously published collection The Seven Deadly Sins and other left over poems. The collection was published in 1941 and the poem is directed at Anita.
How can I tell if your voice is beautiful.
I know only that it pierces me
And make me tremble like a leaf
And tearing me apart and blows 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 or rest,
Until they are mine.
Image description: Anita Nathorst, unknown year. 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 through his family deeply anchored in the life of the mill and manor. He came to Uppsala in 1880 and lived on Övre Slottsgatan 13 and completed one single exam. Fröding joined the radical circles of the association Verdandi and wrote parodic poems and comrades songs.
He returned to Karlstad where he, after writing notices in various newspapers, was employed at the Karlstad newspaper. An inheritance in 1888 resulted in financial independence and Fröding left his employment.
Between 1889 and 1890 Fröding resided on a treatment establishment in Görlitz due to mental illness. There he experienced his first major creative period, when the main part of his debut poetry collection Gitarr och Dragharmonika was completed and made him the most important poet in Sweden.
The following examples of fröding poetry, called "in the Youth", are taken from guitar and Dragharmonika, 2nd ed. From 1893:
It sparkles so sparkly and beautifully in the river,
It chirps so funny in the pine.
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 heaven and all I see.
It is as if the wind has a message for me
If happy days, which are approaching,
My blood is in concern, I think I'm in love
— In Whom? — Ah in all that breathes.
I wanted everything in the heaven and the Earth
Was close to my heart in the shape of a girl.
In 1894 Nya dikter was published and in 1896 Stänk och flikar. However his health deteriorated and Fröding was hospitalized at Ulleråkers Hospital in 1896–1905.
Gustaf Fröding Died on the 8 February 1911 and was buried at the old cemetery in Uppsala the 12 of February. After the burial in Klara Church in Stockholm, the coffin was taken with special trains to Uppsala. Archbishop Nathan Söderblom said in his speech the following words at the coffin:
"Three small books came out – and a whole language has sorrow".
Many of Uppsalas people met up when train arrived in Uppsala. Then the coffin was taken, wrapped in the light of torches in the winter twilight, to the cemetery. Erik Axel Karlfeldt spoke at the grave.
