Harry Martinson (6May 1904 – 11February 1978) was a Swedish writer,poet and formersailor. In 1949 he was elected into theSwedish Academy. He was awarded a jointNobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow SwedeEyvind Johnson "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos".[1] The choice was controversial, as both Martinson and Johnson were members of the academy.[2]
He has been called "the great reformer of 20th-century Swedish poetry, the most original of the writers called 'proletarian'."[3] One of his most noted works is the poetic cycleAniara, which is a story of the spacecraftAniara that during ajourney through space loses its course and subsequently floats on without destination. The book was published in 1956 and becamean opera in 1959 composed byKarl-Birger Blomdahl.[4][5] The cycle has been described as "an epic story of man's fragility and folly".[6]
Martinson was born inJämshög,Blekinge County in south-eastern Sweden.[7] Born Harry Edmund Olofsson, he was the fifth child ofmiddle class parents who ran a small shop in the village Nyteboda and had four older and two younger sisters.[8] At a young age he lost both his parents, his father died oftuberculosis in 1910 and a year later his mother emigrated toPortland, Oregon leaving behind her children, whereafter Martinson was placed as a foster child (Kommunalbarn) in the Swedish countryside.[7] He was moved between different homes and alternated between working for his foster parents and attending elementary school, where he often received excellent grades.[9] Martinson would later depict his childhood in the novelFlowering Nettle (1935), and its continuationVägen ut ("The Way Out", 1936).
At the age of sixteen Harry Martinson, as he now called himself, had run away and signed onto a ship inGothenburg as anable seaman. Thesteam ship's journey reached France, Ireland and Scotland, but after returning to Stockholm Martinson signed off as he could not afford the necessary winter clothes. He then spent eighteen months as avagrant, eventually reaching as far asUmeå in north-east Sweden and thenTromsø in northern Norway. In June 1921 he was arrested for vagrancy inLundagård park,Lund. In March 1922 he signed on as astoker on a steam ship that sailed to Norway and Iceland, but after two months he ran away in Belgium. He stayed inAntwerpen, Belgium for a while before signing on to a ship destined for USA, where he hoped to meet his mother, and then to a Greek ship sailing toSouth America. He spent some time as a seaman inBrazil and then signed on to a ship that sailed fromRio de Janeiro toCape Town, and then further toBombay. In Bombay he again ran away, before signing on to another ship that sailed back to Europe.[10][7]
Troubled by lung problems Martinson set ashore in Sweden on his 23rd birthday in May 1927.[11][12][13] Martinson would later depict his years as a seaman in several acclaimed books, includingKap farväl! (1933), which was a critical and commercial success and the first of his books to be translated to English (Cape Farewell, 1934).[14]
Around 1927, Martinson began his literary career and had several poems published in different publications. The same year he metArtur Lundkvist, who introduced him tomodernist poets such asElmer Diktonius,Carl Sandburg andEdgar Lee Masters. In September 1929, Martinson's first book of poems calledSpökskepp ("Ghost Ship") was published byAlbert Bonniers förlag.[15] Together with Lundkvist,Gustav Sandgren,Erik Asklund andJosef Kjellgren he authored the anthologyFem unga (Five Youths),[16] which introducedmodernism in Swedish literature. His next collection of poems,Nomad (1931) featured a wide scope of themes and literary styles, including nature poems, impressions from his sea travels and childhood memories and mixed traditionalrhymed verse with modernistfree verse and epicprose poems. It was widely acclaimed by contemporary critics and is regarded as Martinson's literary breakthrough.[17] It was followed by two prose books in which Martinson recalled his years as a seaman,Resor utan mål ("Aimless Journeys", 1932) andKap farväl! (Cape Farewell, 1933) which further established Martinson as one of the leading Swedish authors of his generation.[18]
After a poorly received collection of poems,Natur ("Nature", 1934), Martinson found great success as anovelist with the semi-autobiographicalNässlorna blomma (Flowering Nettle) in 1935, in which he depicted his childhood. It was a critical and widely read success that at the end of 1935 had been published in three editions,[19] and has since been translated into more than thirty languages. The story was continued in the novelVägen ut ("The Way Out") in 1936, which was another critical and commercial success.[20]
The commercial success of his recent books and several scholarships awarded for his writing allowed Martinson to buy afarm inSödermanland, where he lived with his wife, theproletarian novelistMoa Martinson, and her sons. During this time he wrote a trilogy of essay books that focused on nature:Svärmare och harkrank (1937),Midsommardalen (1938) andDet enkla och det svåra (1939).[21]
In late 1939, Martinson was engaged in the FinlandWinter War as a representative of the SwedishFinland Committee. In winter 1940 he travelled in Sweden and Finland together with five other Swedish authors in a campaign to recruit volunteers to the Finnish army. Martinson himself took part as a volunteer in the war. In March 1940 he spent nine days at the heavily attacked front inSalla as acourier for the Finnish troops.[22] Martinson wrote about his experiences in the bookVerklighet till döds ("Reality to Death"), which was published in 1941.[23]
Passad (1945), influenced byChinese poetry, was Martinson's first collection of poems in eleven years, became a critical and commercial success and his most successful book of poems to date.[24] The novelVägen till Klockrike (The Road to Klockrike, 1948) was another huge success, and in 1949 Martinson became the first proletarian writer to be elected a member of theSwedish Academy.[3]
In 1953 Martinson publishedCikada ("Cicada"), a collection of poems which was another critical success and his best-selling poetry book to date.[25] Much of the collection featured familiar themes in Martinson's writing such as nature,didactic poems and criticism of the modern society, but the last section in the book was something new. The cycle "Sången om Doris och Mima" ("The Song About Doris and Mima"), ascience fiction like story of aspacecraft evacuating people from the destroyed earth which loses its course and subsequently floats on without destination. Martinson would later expand the cycle to his most famous work,Aniara.[26]
Martinson worked on a follow-up toAniara calledDoriderna which was going to be about the people left on earth. In the meantime he publishedGräsen i Thule ("The Grass in Thule", 1958), a collection of mainly nature poems that was also well received by contemporary critics and readers.[28] His next bookVagnen ("The Wagon", 1960), a collection of poems which largely was a criticism of the modern society and its technology, was however not well received by contemporary critics. Sensitive to criticism, Martinson declared that no more of his poems would be published during his lifetime, but a few other works were published in the 1960's, such as the playTre knivar från Wei ("Three Knives from Wei", 1964) set in 7th centuryChina, which was staged byIngmar Bergman in theRoyal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 1964. In 1971 Martinson returned as a poet withDikter om ljus och mörker (Poems About Light and Darkness), which was followed by a collection of nature poemsTuvor (Tufts) in 1973.[29]
On 3 October 1974 theSwedish Academy announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature that year should be awarded jointly to Harry Martinson andEyvind Johnson. Harry Martinson was awarded with the citation "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos." The prize decision sparked heavy criticism in the Swedish press against the Swedish Academy for awarding the Nobel Prize to two of its own members. Although there were also positive reactions to the prize decision, the sensitive Martinson took the negative comments aimed at the Academy personally and found it hard to enjoy the recognition.[30]
From 1929 to 1940, he was married to novelistMoa Martinson, prominent as a feminist and proletarian author, whom he met through a Stockholm anarchist newspaper,Brand.[3] He travelled to the Soviet Union in 1934.[3][7] He and Moa were divorced due to her criticism of his lack of political commitment.[3] Harry married Ingrid Lindcrantz (1916–1994) in 1942.[3][7]
The headstone on Martinson's grave in Silverdal, Sollentuna – north of Stockholm
Throughout the 1960s Martinson suffered from bad health and depressions. He was generally seen as an old-fashioned author by the contemporary cultural world and became less productive as a writer.[31] The sensitive Martinson found it hard to cope with the criticism following his 1974 Nobel Prize award in Literature, and died by suicide on 11February 1978 at theKarolinska University Hospital in Stockholm after cutting his stomach open with a pair of scissors in what has been described as a "hara-kiri-like manner".[32][33] He was buried inSollentuna on 24 February 1978.[34]
Martinson's poetry, characterized by linguistic innovation and a frequent use ofmetaphors, combined an acute eye for, and love of nature, with a deeply felthumanism.[35][36] His poetry was noted for rich imagery with precise observations that emphazised details. In his later writing nature and the earth became increasingly important motifs. During the 1930s he developed a mastery in describing nature in both prose and poetry and was especially noted for his short nature poems with precise observations. In theautobiographical novelsNässlorna blomma (Flowering Nettle, 1935) andVägen ut (The Way Out, 1936) Martinson tells about his childhood. Martinson had a strong interest inscience which was a prominent influence in his work. In his bookVerklighet till döds (Reality to Death, 1940) written during World War II Martinson criticized contemporary social conditions and technological development. Criticism of modern culture is also a theme in Martinson's philosophical vagabond novelVägen till Klockrike (1948; English translationThe Road, 1950) and the collection of poemsPassad (1945).
In his later writing Martinson developed a new major theme based on his increasing interest in outer space and the cosmic. This came to most distinct expression inAniara (1956), a poetic space epic that became Martinson's best known work. In his late work criticism of modern life and its technology came to an even stronger expression in his 1960 poetry collectionVagnen (The Wagon).
A stone monument at Harry Martinson's birthplace in Nyteboda. The text translated to English reads "The Nobel Prize laureate Harry Martinson was born here on 6 May 1904."
After his death, many hailed Martinson as one of the greatest Swedish authors sinceAugust Strindberg.[7] His 1973 nature poem "De blomster som i marken bor" is included in the SwedishBook of Psalms.[37] The 100th anniversary of Martinson's birth was celebrated around Sweden in 2004,[38] as were the 50th anniversary of Martinson receiving the Nobel prize and the 120th anniversary of his birth in 2024.[39]
The internationalCikada Prize is awarded in memory of Harry Martinson since that year. His best known worksAniara,Flowering Nettle andVägen till klockrike have been translated to over a dozen different languages.[40] TheHarry Martinson Society was founded in 1984 and awards theHarry Martinson Prize to individuals or organisations working in the spirit of Harry Martinson.[41] TheSwedish Academy awards a scholarship in memory of Harry Martinson to an author writing in Swedish.[42]
^Sjöberg, Leif (1974). "Harry Martinson: From Vagabond to Space Explorer".Books Abroad.48 (3 (Summer, 1974)). Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma:476–485.doi:10.2307/40128696.JSTOR40128696.
^Kumm, Björn (12 December 1991). "Obituary: Artur Lundkvist".[[The IndependentThe headstone on Martinson's grave in Silverdal, Sollentuna – north of Stockholm]]. London. p. 13.
^Gyllensten, Lars (2000).Minnen, bara minnen [Memories, just memories] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag.ISBN91-0-057140-7.SELIBR7150260.
