August Hjalmar Edgren (October 18, 1840 – December 9, 1903) was a

Swedish-American Swedish Americans () are Americans of Swedish descent. The history of Swedish Americans dates back to the early colonial times, with notable migration waves occurring in the 19th and early 20th centuries and approximately 1.2 million arrivi ...

linguist, professor, and author.

Background

August Hjalmar Edgren was born in Östanås, Älvsbacka parish in

Värmland Värmland () is a ''Provinces of Sweden, landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Name Several Latinized version ...

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 ...

. He was the son of Axel Edgren (1813–1864) and Mathilda Berger (1817–1878). He was educated in

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

and

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 ...

. He was a graduate of the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

and the royal military school of Sweden. Edgren passed the officer's exam in Stockholm in 1860, and subsequently served during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in the Union Army, where he entered the 99th New York Regiment as 2d lieutenant in January 1862. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, and in August 1863 he was assigned to the engineer corps. He resigned towards the end of 1863, went back to Sweden and took commission in the

Värmland Regiment The Värmland Regiment (), designations I 22, I 2 and I 2/Fo 52, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traces its origins back to the 16th century. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruited from the province of Värmland, where the un ...

, in which he served from February 1864 until August 1870, having been adjutant from July 1869. In the beginning of the 1870s Edgren returned to the United States, where he studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Career

Hjalmar Edgren divided his professional career between Sweden and the United States. He was a teacher of languages in Riverview Academy in 1871/2, instructor in French, German, and Sanskrit in Yale from 1874 until 1880, and lecturer in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

in the

University of Lund Lund University () is a public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially founded in 1666 on the ...

, Sweden, from 1880 until 1884, when he became professor of

modern languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use as a native language. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead clas ...

and Sanskrit at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. Edgren served as the Rector of the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

from 1891 to 1893. In 1896, Edgren was one of the professors who organized the graduate college at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

. The graduate college at University of Nebraska was the first graduate school in the trans-Mississippi West. At the University of Nebraska, Edgren served as a professor of romance languages and comparative philology. He added courses in Scandinavian languages to the romance language department. In 1901, he returned to Sweden to serve on the founding board of the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

at the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy (), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body t ...

. In 1902, he was awarded a Doctorate of Law at the University of Nebraska.

Personal life

In 1880, Hjalmar Edgren was married in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

to Anna Marianne (Manne) Steendorff. Anna Marianne was the daughter of Danish painter Christian Wilhelm Steendorff (1817–1904) and Anna Ulrica Öhrström (1816–1891). She was also the brother of Swedish architect

Magnus Steendorff Magnus Gottfrid Steendorff (25 November 1855 – 26 April 1945) was a Sweden, Swedish architect. Background Magnus Steendorff was born in Copenhagen as the only son of Denmark, Danish painter Christian Wilhelm Steendorff (1817–1904) and hi ...

. Hjalmar Edgren was the brother of

John Alexis Edgren John Alexis Edgren (February 20, 1839 – January 26, 1908) was a Swedish-American Baptist minister. Edgren began what eventually evolved into Bethel University and the Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Background Johan Alexis ...

who became a Minister and was the founder of what became Bethel University. Hjalmar Edgren died in

Djursholm Djursholm () is one of four suburban districts in, and the seat of Danderyd Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. Djursholm is included in the multi-municipal Stockholm urban area. Djursholm is divided into a number of different areas: Djursho ...

Danderyd Municipality Danderyd Municipality (; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is located within Stoc ...

, a municipality just north of

Stockholm, Sweden 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 ...

Works

Hjalmar Edgren translated into English the works of noted Swedish writer

Viktor Rydberg Abraham Viktor Rydberg (; 18 December 182821 September 1895) was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877–1895. "Primarily a classical idealist", Viktor Rydberg has been described as "Sweden's last Romantic" and by 1859 wa ...

. He translated ''Magic of the Middle Ages'' and ''The Cosmic Philosophy of the Middle Ages''. Hjalmar Edgren also translated published works from English into Swedish, most notably the poetry of

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

—for example "

Evangeline ''Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie'' is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel during the e ...

" (Göteborg, 1875)—and

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

. Edgren wrote numerous books, including a report of the author's travels in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In addition, the multi-lingual Edgren was the author of numerous books of grammar in several languages including German, French, Italian, Spanish and Sanskrit.''A Provisional List of Nebraska Authors'' (Sophia J. Lammers University of Nebraska. 1918

Among his publications are a ''German and English Dictionary'', with Prof. W. D. Whitney (New York and London, 1877); and works in Swedish on ''The Literature of America'' (Göteborg, 1878), ''The Public Schools and Colleges of the United States'' (Upsala, 1879), ''Swedish Literature in America'' (Sweden, 1883) and ''American Antiquities'' (1885). Other works include: *''Kalidasa, Schakuntala eller den förlorade ringen'' (1875) Swedish *''Ur Amerikas skönliteratur. Teckningar och öfversättningar'' (1878) Swedish *''On the verbal roots of the Sanskrit language and of the Sanskrit grammarians'' (1879) *''The kindred Germanic words of German and English'' (1880) *''Sanskritspråkets formlära'' (1883) Swedish *''Dikter i original och översättning'' (1884) Swedish *''A compendious Sanskrit grammar'' (1885) *''A compendious French Grammar'' (1890) *''An Elementary Spanish Grammar'' (1891) *''Supplementary exercises for Edgren's French Grammar'' (1893) *''A brief Italian grammar; with exercises (1897) *''Sommarferier I Montezumas Land'' (1898) Swedish *''Topical digest of the Rig-Veda'' (1899) *''An Italian and English dictionary with pronunciation and brief etymologies'' (1901) *''A French and English dictionary, with indications of pronunciation, etymologies, and dates of earliest appearance of French words in the language'' (1901)

References

Other sources

*Benson, Adolph B & Naboth Hedin ''Swedes in America 1638-1938'' (New Haven, 1938) *Lindquist, Emory: ''An Immigrant's Two Worlds, a Biography of Hjalmar Edgren'' (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana Historical Society. 1972)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgren, August Hjalmar 1840 births 1903 deaths Linguists from the United States University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Swedish emigrants to the United States People from Karlstad Municipality