Very good poet and prose writer who led the literary reaction to the Naturalist movement
in Sweden, calling for a renaissance of the literature of fantasy, beauty, and
national themes. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1916.
Ill health forced Heidenstam to spend most of his youth in the central and
eastern Mediterranean countries. His first book of poems, Vallfart och
vandringsar (1888; "Pilgrimage and Wander Years"), full of the fables
of the southern lands and the philosophy of the East, was an immediate success
with the Swedish public. With his essay "Renassans" (1889) he first
voiced his opposition to naturalism and the realistic literary program in
Sweden.
His efforts toward the realization of a new Swedish literature include two
volumes of poems, Dikter (1895) and his last volume, Nya dikter (1915), many
poems of which are translated in Sweden's Laureate: Selected Poems of Verner von
Heidenstam (1919). He also wrote several volumes of historical fiction, the most
important of which are Karolinerna, 2 vol. (1897-98; The Charles Men), and
Folkungatradet (1905-07; The Tree of the Folkungs). After the turn of the
century Heidenstam's works lost their popular appeal, and he wrote virtually
nothing during the last 25 years of his life.
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