Per Anders Fogelström (1917-1998)

 

  • Per Anders Fogelström (1917-1998)
  • Per Anders Fogelström is among the leading figures of modern Swedish literature. He spent his whole life in Stockholm, and the most famous of his many works is a series of novels set in the city he loved so dearly. His parents had escaped the revolution in Russia, where his father worked for a Swedish company; Per Anders was born shortly after they returned home to Sweden. His father, however, soon immigrated to America and never returned. Life without his father, and with his mother’s stoic loneliness, marked Fogelström’s life and authorship.
    Fogelström was a pacifist throughout his life and actively participated in the opposition against Swedish nuclear weapons. From 1963 to 1977 he was chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society. He was also active in Svenska Vietnamkommittén.
    Stockholm and its surroundings play an important part in Fogelström’s books, but most important are the lives of the people he writes about - they way they live, and how they feel. Fogelström got his first story ideas as a child, looking out the windows as he rode the tram from his home on Södermalm to his school on Östermalm.
    As an author he decided to write about the Stockholm he knew best, the poor part of Södermalm, for future generations to come. His home was dominated by women, and his biographical novel is titled “I kvinnoland” (Among Women). His mother had financial difficulties, and it was hard for her to raise Per Anders and his brother. She was always in debt. When Fogelström made his debut with “Sommaren med Monika" (1951), he and his mother went around Stockholm paying off their debts. The little family could finally get their own apartment. “Sommaren med Monika” was later filmed by Ingmar Bergman.
    Fogelström was early on drawn to authors who wrote realistically, and his own way of writing is realistic. His most famous book, “Mina drömmars stad” (1960), was written about the life of young Henning, and continues with other books in a series, “Barn av sin stad”, “Minns du den stad”, “I en förvandlad stad”, and “Stad i världen”.
    Fogelström suffered a stroke later in his life and used a wheelchair. He died in 1998 and is buried at Katarina kyrkogård.

  • "På dagarna strövade han omkring och sökte arbete. Han vågade inte ta sig över Slussen och ner i innerstadens vimmel, måste ju hitta tillbaka till höskullen och köksan. Därför höll han sig mest intill Götgatan, särskilt kring Fyllbacken där verkstäderna låg tätt. Vandrade mellan tunnbindare och vagnmakare, hovslagare och gelbgjutare. Men det fanns gott om pojkar och ont om arbete."
    (from “Mina drömmars stad”)