Carl Gustav Boberg (16 August 1859 – 7 January 1940, aged 80) was a Swedish poet and elected official, best known for writing the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic cou ...

poem "O Store Gud" (O Great God) from which the English language hymn "

How Great Thou Art "How Great Thou Art" is a Christian hymn based on an original Swedish hymn entitled "" written in 1885 by Carl Boberg (1859–1940). The English version of the hymn and its title are a loose translation by the English missionary Stuart K. Hine ...

" is derived.

Biographical details

Born in

Mönsterås Mönsterås () is a locality and the seat of Mönsterås Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Ki ...

Kalmar County Kalmar County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg, Jönköping, Blekinge and Östergötland. To the east in the Baltic Sea is the island Gotland. The counties are mainly administrative units. ...

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized f ...

, Boberg was a carpenter's son, worked briefly as a sailor, and served as a lay minister in the

Mission Covenant Church of Sweden The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska Missionskyrkan), founded in 1878, was a Swedish evangelical free church. It was the second-largest Protestant denomination in Sweden, after the national church, the Church of Sweden. In 2011, t ...

. He was the editor of a weekly Christian newspaper, ''Sanningsvittnet'' (Witness of the Truth), from 1890 until 1916. Boberg served in the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

for 20 years from 1912 to 1931. He published more than 60 poems, hymns, and gospel songs, including a collaboration with Swedish hymnist

Lina Sandell Lina Sandell (full name: Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg) (3 October 1832 – 27 July 1903) was a Swedish poet and author of gospel hymns. Background The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Sandell grew up in the rectory at Fröderyd parish in t ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boberg, Carl 1859 births 1940 deaths Christian hymnwriters Litteris et Artibus recipients Members of the Riksdag People from Mönsterås Municipality Swedish male writers Swedish poets Swedish Protestant hymnwriters Swedish songwriters