Ernst Didring (18 October 1868 – 13 October 1931) was an early 20th-century author who wrote mainly of life in his home country of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.
Biography
Born 18 October 1868 in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, Didring aspired to a career in teaching, but was unable to complete his studies due to lack of money. Instead, by 1884 he was working as an office clerk in the head office of the Swedish railways, and in 1899 he married a Danish teacher, Jeanne Rye. He was very involved in the founding of , the railroad pension, in 1910, and was a full-time writer from 1914. Between 1915 and 1920 he was the leader of the
Swedish Red Cross
The Swedish Red Cross ( Swedish: ''Svenska Röda Korset'') is a Swedish humanitarian organisation and a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Founded in 1865, its purpose is to prevent and alleviate human suffering wher ...
for
prisoners of the war. Also during that time, and then again in 1923 to 1929, he was the leader of Sweden's writers society. In the intervening years (1920–1922) he traveled through Europe (France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany). In 1931 he was awarded the prestigious "Large Prize" by the literary institution ''
Samfundet De Nio
Samfundet De Nio (''The Nine Society'' or ''Society of the Nine'') is a Swedish literary society founded on 14 February 1913 in Stockholm by a testamentary donation from writer Lotten von Kraemer. The society has nine members who are elected for ...
''.
He died, aged 62, in Stockholm.
Works
Ernst Didring was a proponent of
naturalism.
His main series and best known book is the novel trilogy ('iron ore') which was published between 1914 and 1925. It describes life in the north of Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century.
# ''Pioneers'': a detailed description of the construction of the railway from
Kiruna
(; ; ; ) is the northernmost Stad (Sweden), city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norrbotten County. The c ...
to
Narvik
() is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...
.
# ''The Mountain's Song'': portrays work in the mining company.
# ''Speculators'': the last part describes shareholders of the iron companies in Stockholm – the ups and downs before World War I.
Some of his other novels are also important in the history of Swedish literature:
# : former life in the
Stockholm archipelago
The Stockholm Archipelago () is the largest archipelago in Sweden, and the second-largest archipelago in the Baltic Sea (the largest being the Archipelago Sea across the Baltic in Finland). Part of the archipelago has been designated as a Rams ...
(1925–27);
# : 'The World's Spider' (circa 1925);
# : 'The Dark Blue Stamp' (1932).
They paint a comprehensive picture of life in Swedish society around 1900 which is relevant even today. Often there were only several months between the publication of the original book and translation to other European languages. His work was especially well-recognized in Germany. Didring also wrote some theater plays which were well known in Stockholm in his time.
Many of his books can still be bought in second-hand bookshops or loaned from Swedish or German libraries.
There are also some unabridged audiobooks available from the
Swedish Agency for Accessible Media
The Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (, MTM), formerly the Audiobook and Braille Library (, TPB), is a Swedish governmental administrative agency under the Ministry of Culture.
The agency's task is to work in collaboration with other librari ...
's digital library Legimus.
See also
*
List of Swedish language writers
References
Didring author presentation in
Project Runeberg
Project Runeberg () is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded by Lars Aronsson and ...
This entry is a compressed translation from the Swedish and German Wikipedia versions.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Didring, Ernst
1868 births
1931 deaths
Swedish-language writers