Per Olov Enquist

Per Olov Enquist, also known as P. O. Enquist, (23 September 1934 – 25 April 2020) was a Swedish author. He had worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist.

Biography

Enquist was born and raised in Hjoggböle, a village in present-day Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten. He was the only son of a single mother, who became a widow when he was half a year old. In his youth, he was a promising athlete with a high jump personal best of 1.97 meters. He studied at Uppsala University, receiving a degree in the history of literature.

During his time in Uppsala he started writing, his first novel ''Kristallögat'' being published in 1961, and became a newspaper journalist. Enquist won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1968 for '' The Legionnaires'', his account of Sweden's deportation of Baltic-country soldiers at the end of the second world war, a novel which also became his international breakthrough. Enquist was to write several more novels based on true events. ''Kapten Nemos bibliotek'' (1991) took inspiration from where two newly born boys were accidentally switched; '' The Visit of the Royal Physician'' (1999) was based on the life of Danish King Christian VII and his physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, and Struensee's political machinations and relationship with the King's wife Caroline Matilda in the 1770s; ''Lewis resa'' (2001) covered the life of Pentecostalist Lewi Pethrus; while ''Boken om Blanche och Marie'' (2004) was based on the friendship of Marie Curie and mental patient Marie "Blanche" Wittman. Enquist's first stage play was ''Tribadernas natt'' (1975), a story about Swedish author August Strindberg, his soon-to-be ex-wife Siri von Essen, and von Essen's presumed lover .

Awards for his writing have included the Dobloug Prize in 1988, the Selma Lagerlöf Prize in 1997, and the Italian Flaiano Prize in 2002. Besides books and stage plays, Enquist also wrote screenplays for motion pictures, including '' Pelle Erövraren'' (1987) and ''Hamsun'' (1996), and at the 27th Guldbagge Awards in 1993, Enquist was nominated for the award for Best Screenplay for the film '' Il Capitano: A Swedish Requiem''. He also received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the Nelly Sachs Prize in 2003 for '' The Visit of the Royal Physician''. ''The Visit of the Royal Physician'' also became the first of two books by Enquist to be awarded the August Prize, the other being his 2008 autobiography '' Ett annat liv''. Enquist was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2009 and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize in 2010.

Enquist died on 25 April 2020 after a prolonged struggle with cancer.

Bibliography

*' (1961)
*' (1963)
*' (1964).
*' (1964). Written under the pseudonym "Peter Husberg" along with Torsten Ekbom and Leif Nylén.
*' (1966)
*' (1966)
*'' Legionärerna: En roman om baltutlämningen'' (1968)
*' (1971)
*' (1972).
*' (1974).
*' (1975)
*' (1976).
*' (1978).
*''Mannen på trottoaren'' (1979).
*' (1980). Based on the myth of Phaedra.
*''Från regnormarnas liv'' (1981)
*''En triptyk'' (1981). A collection of his works ''Tribadernas natt'', ''Till Fedra'', and ''Från regnormarnas liv''.
*' (1982).
*''Strindberg. Ett liv'' (1984).
*' (1985).
*''Två reportage om idrott'' (1986).
*''Protagoras sats'' (1987).
*' (1988).
*' (1991).
*' (1992).
*'' Bildmakarna'' (1998)
*'' Livläkarens besök'' (1999).
*' (2001).
*' (2003)
*' (2004). English translation as ''The Book about Blanche and Marie'', 2006
*'' Ett annat liv'' ("A different life", autobiography) (2008).
*' (2010)
*' (2013).

References

External links

*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Enquist, Per Olov
1934 births
2020 deaths
People from Skellefteå Municipality
Writers from Västerbotten County
Swedish-language writers
20th-century Swedish dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Swedish novelists
21st-century Swedish novelists
Swedish historical novelists
Uppsala University alumni
Selma Lagerlöf Prize winners
Dobloug Prize winners
Nordic Council Literature Prize winners
Litteris et Artibus recipients
August Prize winners
Best Screenplay Guldbagge Award winners
Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
Articles containing video clips
Swedish male screenwriters
Swedish male novelists
Swedish male dramatists and playwrights
21st-century Swedish dramatists and playwrights