Dan Andersson

Daniel Andersson (6 April 1888 – 16 September 1920)Dan Andersson
''britannica.com'', 2013. Retrieved: July 31, 2013. was a Swedish author, poet, and composer. He sometimes used the pen name ''Black Jim''. Although he is counted among the Swedish proletarian authors, his works are not limited to that genre. His poems are among the most popular in Swedish literature; they have been set to music by more composers than any other 20th century Swedish poet.

Early life

Born in Grangärde parish in the province of Dalecarlia (Dalarna), Andersson grew up under harsh conditions in the village of Skattlösberg. His father Adolf was a primary school teacher there, and his mother Augusta had also taught in the local school. The village lies in the "Finn Woods" of southern Dalarna, where Forest Finns had immigrated to cultivate new land. On his father's side, Andersson descended from these Finnish settlers.

Andersson took odd jobs during the first years of his life, for instance as a forestry worker and school teacher. He found it difficult to make a living. The family considered trying to find a better life in the United States, and Andersson was sent to live in Forest Lake, Minnesota, as a 14-year-old in 1902 to see if it would be possible. But he wrote to them, saying that there were no better opportunities there than in Sweden, upon which his father asked him to come home. The family moved from Skattlösberg in 1905, but Andersson returned there to live with his parents and his five siblings in Luossa cottage there from 1911 to 1915. During this period, he wrote several stories and poems; in particular, large parts of his (Colliers' Stories) and (The charcoal-burner's Songs) were probably created during this time. Those collections mention his work of charcoal-burning; he describes looking after the charcoal "by the dim glow of a sooty lantern, swinging from the smoke-grimy roof of his sod-cabin." In 1918 Andersson married primary schoolteacher Olga Turesson, the sister of troubadour .

File:Dan Andersson 14 år.jpg, Andersson aged 14
File:Luossastugan 1.jpg, Luossa cottage, celebrated in the song " Omkring tiggarn från Luossa" (Around the beggar from Luossa), published in the 1917 '' Svarta ballader''.
File:Luossastugan 2.jpg, Andersson's writing-desk in Luossa cottage

Brunnsvik

During 1914–1915, Andersson studied at the Brunnsvik folk high school, with, among others, future authors Harry Blomberg and Ragnar Jändel. He was a friend of Karl Lärka, who became a well-known documentary photographer. From this time onwards he was active as an author, writing poems and songs about his home region; these are still read and sung a century later in Swedish homes. and are among the best known of his interpreters. Andersson set some of his own lyrics to music — most notably ("To My Sister") and ("Seaman Jansson") — and played the accordion and violin. He was a co-worker at the Social Democratic newspaper ''Ny Tid'' in Gothenburg 1917–1918, and he also translated texts by Rudyard Kipling and Charles Baudelaire into Swedish. Despite his simple upbringing, Andersson was highly educated."Introduction". ''Charcoal Burner’s Ballad and Other Poems'' by Dan Andersson, trans. by Caroline Schleef, (New York: Fine Editions Press, 1943)

Death

On 16 September 1920, Dan Andersson died in room 11 at Hotel Hellman in Stockholm, where he had gone to look for a job at the newspaper ''Social-Demokraten''. The hotel staff had used hydrogen cyanide against bedbugs and had not cleared the room as prescribed. At 3 p.m. Andersson was found dead. Andersson is buried at Lyviken Cemetery in Ludvika."Introduction". ''Dan Andersson in English'', trans. by Åke Helgesson. Hallsberg: Åke Helgesson, 1994

Legacy

The historian of literature Ingemar Algulin writes that Andersson's ballads "were splendidly rhythmic and mellow and permeated by sentimental strains"; they include some of the most popular of all Swedish poems, such as "Helgdagskväll i timmerkojan", "En spelmans jordafärd", and "Jungman Jansson". The translator Roger Hinchliffe comments that Andersson "could never have dreamed how beloved his verses would become, nor that they would attract more composers than any other 20th century Swedish poet." He characterises Andersson's verse as containing a quantity of "Oriental mysticism", alongside love of the forested region and its simple people, "lumberjacks, charcoal makers and fiddlers", with their hard poor ways of life, their "storytelling and music". In 2005, Sofia Karlsson recorded a new interpretation of 11 of his songs on her album '' Svarta ballader'', which received a Grammis award in both Sweden and Denmark.

In 1988, at the centenary of Andersson's birth, Posten, the Swedish postal service, published two stamps in his honour. In Ludvika, a Dan Andersson week is celebrated the first week of every August; the town has a Dan Andersson museum and statue. There is a bust at Järntorget in Gothenburg."Introduction". ''Poems of Dan Andersson'', trans. by Mike McArthur. Wintringham: Oak Tree Press, 2003.

File:Dan Andersson-statyn på Järntorget i Göteborg, den 3 sept 2006.JPG, Andersson bust, Gothenburg
File:Ludvika Dan Andersson museum 2013.jpg, The Dan Andersson museum, Ludvika

Works

In Swedish

* 1903 ''Brevkort från Grangärde finnmark'' (Postcard from Grangärde Finnmark)
* 1914 ' (Coal Stories)
* 1915 ' (The Charcoal-burner's Songs)
* 1916
Det kallas vidskepelse
' (That's called Superstition)
* 1917 '' Svarta ballader'' (Black Ballads)
* 1918
De tre hemlösa
' (The Three Homeless)
* 1919
David Ramms arv
' (David Ramm's Legacy)
* 1920 ''. Berättelser från norra Amerika'' (Chi-mo-ka-ma. Stories from North America)
* 1922
Efterlämnade dikter
' (Surviving Poems)

In English

* 1929 ''Modern Swedish Poetry Pt. 1'', trans. by C. D. Locock, (New York: The Macmillan Company)
* 1934 ''Modern Swedish Short Stories'', trans. by Madeleine Ekenberg, (London: Cape)
* 1943 ''Charcoal Burner’s Ballad and Other Poems'' by Dan Andersson, trans. by Caroline Schleef, (New York: Fine Editions Press)
* 1950 ''Scandinavian Songs and Ballads'' edited by Martin S. Allwood, (Mullsjö: Anglo-American Center)
* 1958 ''The Last Night in Paindalen'' by Dan Andersson, trans. by Caroline Schleef, (Galesburg: Wagoner Printing Co.)
* 1974 ''Swedish Songs'' LP, trans. by Fred Lane, (Stockholm: Troll Flute)
* 1991 ''Swedes On Love'' CD, trans. by Roger Hinchliffe, (Stockholm: Roger Records)
* 1994 ''Dan Andersson in English'', trans. by Åke Helgesson, (Hallsberg: Åke Helgesson)
* 2003 ''Poems of Dan Andersson'', trans. by Mike McArthur, (Wintringham: Oak Tree Press)

References

Sources

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External links

Dan Andersson
at Authors' Calendar
Translations
''Christmas-song in the Finnmark'' (Julvisa i Finnmarken)
translated by Fred Lane
* ''A musician's last journey'' (En spelmans jordafärd) translated by C.D. Locock
''For my sister'' and four other poems
sung in English by Åke Helgesson
* sung in English by Åke Helgesson
Poems by Dan Andersson
translated by John Irons
Twelve Poems
translated by Caroline Schleef
;Videos
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Dan
1888 births
1920 deaths
Swedish people of Forest Finnish descent
People from Ludvika Municipality
Swedish-language poets
Swedish socialists
Writers from Dalarna County
20th-century Swedish poets
20th-century Swedish male writers
*