August Hjalmar Edgren (October 18, 1840 – December 9, 1903) was aSwedish-American linguist, professor, and author.
August Hjalmar Edgren was born inÖstanås, Älvsbacka parish inVärmland,Sweden. He was the son of Axel Edgren (1813–1864) and Mathilda Berger (1817–1878). He was educated inKarlstad andStockholm. He was a graduate of theUniversity of Uppsala and the royal military school of Sweden.[1] Edgren passed the officer's exam in Stockholm in 1860, and subsequently served during theAmerican Civil War in theUnion Army, where he entered the 99th New York Regiment as 2d lieutenant in January 1862. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, and in August 1863 he was assigned to the engineer corps.[1] He resigned towards the end of 1863, went back to Sweden and took commission in theVärmland Regiment, in which he served from February 1864 until August 1870, having been adjutant from July 1869.[1][2] In the beginning of the 1870s Edgren returned to the United States, where he studied atCornell University andYale University.
Hjalmar Edgren divided his professional career between Sweden and the United States. He was a teacher of languages in Riverview Academy in 1871/2, instructor in French, German, and Sanskrit in Yale from 1874 until 1880, and lecturer inSanskrit in theUniversity of Lund, Sweden, from 1880 until 1884, when he became professor ofmodern languages and Sanskrit at theUniversity of Nebraska.[1] Edgren served as theRector of theUniversity of Gothenburg from 1891 to 1893.[3]
In 1896, Edgren was one of the professors who organized the graduate college at theUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln. The graduate college at University of Nebraska was the first graduate school in the trans-Mississippi West. At the University of Nebraska, Edgren served as a professor of romance languages and comparative philology. He added courses in Scandinavian languages to the romance language department.[4]
In 1901, he returned to Sweden to serve on the founding board of theNobel Prize in Literature at theSwedish Academy. In 1902, he was awarded a Doctorate of Law at the University of Nebraska.
In 1880, Hjalmar Edgren was married inCopenhagen to Anna Marianne (Manne) Steendorff. Anna Marianne was the daughter of Danish painter Christian Wilhelm Steendorff (1817–1904) and Anna Ulrica Öhrström (1816–1891). She was also the brother of Swedish architectMagnus Steendorff.Hjalmar Edgren was the brother ofJohn Alexis Edgren who became a Minister and was the founder of what becameBethel University. Hjalmar Edgren died inDjursholm inDanderyd Municipality, a municipality just north ofStockholm, Sweden.
Hjalmar Edgren translated into English the works of noted Swedish writerViktor Rydberg. He translatedMagic of the Middle Ages andThe Cosmic Philosophy of the Middle Ages. Hjalmar Edgren also translated published works from English into Swedish, most notably the poetry ofHenry Wadsworth Longfellow—for example "Evangeline" (Göteborg, 1875)—andAlfred Tennyson.[5]
Edgren wrote numerous books, including a report of the author's travels inMexico. In addition, the multi-lingual Edgren was the author of numerous books of grammar in several languages including German, French, Italian, Spanish and Sanskrit.[6][7]Among his publications are aGerman and English Dictionary, with Prof. W. D. Whitney (New York and London, 1877); and works in Swedish onThe Literature of America (Göteborg, 1878),The Public Schools and Colleges of the United States (Upsala, 1879),Swedish Literature in America (Sweden, 1883) andAmerican Antiquities (1885).[1]
Other works include:
