Ellen Rydelius (27 February, 1885 – 1 April, 1957) was a Swedish translator and writer. She wrote a large number of guide books to major cities and several cookbooks but her major works are translations of Russian novels. In particular, she is remembered for her translation into Swedish of

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

's '' Brothers Karamazov''.

Biography

Born on 27 February 1885 in

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

, Rydelius was the daughter of Per Axel Rydelius, a merchant, and Anna Vilhelmina Ström. After matriculating from Stockholm's Lyceum för flickor (girls high school) in 1903, she graduated in English and Romance languages at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

. Thereafter she spent half a year in Russia studying the language, returning home when her father died. She went on to earn her living as a journalist, working for the two main national daily newspapers, ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' and ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'' before turning freelance. In 1910, she began a highly successful career as a translator, creating Swedish versions of the works of Russian novelists including

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

and

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

. She also translated from English, French and Italian, including works by

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; or Gràtzia Deledda ; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity p ...

and

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...

. She married Sven Harald Wägner, also a journalist, in 1911 but his death in 1925 only reinforced her desire to work. The couple had been separated since 1922. She began to write an extensive series of travel guides in a personalized style, creating Swedish classics such as ''Rom på 8 dagar'' (

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in 8 Days, 1927), ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

på 8 dagar'' (1928) and ''

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

på 8 dagar'' (1929). Other cities she wrote travel guides about include

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Her daughter

Ria Wägner Ria Wägner, born Maria Wägner (1914–1999), was a Swedish journalist, author, translator, and television producer, who became one of the first television personalities in Sweden. Ria Wägner was the daughter of author and translator Ellen Ryde ...

travelled together with her. In the 1940s, when travel was no longer possible, she turned to cookbooks, building on the gastronomic summaries in her guides. They included ''Billiga dagar i franskt kök'' (Cheap Days in French Cooking, 1940) and ''Billiga dagar i italienskt kök'' (Cheap Days in Italian Cooking, 1941). Finally, she wrote historical works about Russia, books about Swedish women, and two autobiographical works.

Biography

References

Further reading