Eyvind Johnson

Lore & Background

Eyvind Johnson was born Olof Edvin Verner Jonsson on 29 July 1900 in a village near Boden in Norrbotten. He left school at thirteen and worked as a log driver, saw mill worker, ticket-seller, and projectionist. In 1919 he moved to Stockholm, where he published articles in anarchist magazines and co-founded the magazine Vår nutid. He traveled in Germany in the 1920s and lived near Paris from 1927 to 1930 with his first wife, Aase Christoffersen. His first book, a short story collection titled De fyra främlingarna, was published in 1924. Influenced by Marcel Proust, André Gide, and James Joyce, he became the leading modernist in Swedish literature. His 1929 novel Kommentar till ett stjärnfall was a critical success. His first major success was the four autobiographical novels published between 1934 and 1937, collected as Romanen om Olof, which blended realism with fairy tales and modernist techniques. During World War II, he contributed to the magazine Håndslag and published the Krilon trilogy, an allegory condemning Nazi oppression and criticizing Swedish neutrality. In 1946 he published Return to Ithaca, based on Odysseus's return. He married translator Cilla Johnson in 1940. He lived in Switzerland from 1947 to 1949 and then a year in England. His historical novels include Dreams of Roses and Fire (1949) and Molnen över Metapontion (1957). The Days of His Grace (1960) won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1962.

Reader's Guide

Eyvind Johnson is significant as the most groundbreaking novelist in modern Swedish literature, introducing modernist techniques such as inner monologue and shifting points of view. His work often served freedom, as noted in his Nobel citation: 'for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom.' His Krilon trilogy used allegory to critique Nazi oppression and Sweden's wartime neutrality. Johnson's historical novels, like Return to Ithaca and The Days of His Grace, gained international recognition. As a member of the Swedish Academy from 1957 and of the Nobel Committee for Literature from 1959 to 1972, he influenced the prize, nominating future laureates including Giorgos Seferis. His legacy includes shaping Swedish literary modernism and addressing political themes through innovative narrative forms.

Did You Know?

• Eyvind Johnson left school at age thirteen and worked as a log driver, saw mill worker, ticket-seller, and projectionist.
• He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1957 and served on the Nobel Committee for Literature from 1959 to 1972.
• His novel The Days of His Grace won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1962.
• Johnson nominated Giorgos Seferis for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963, the year Seferis won.