Siwertz, Per Sigfrid

Siwertz, Per Sigfrid 

Born Jan. 24, 1882, in Stockholm; died there Nov. 28, 1970. Swedish writer. Member of the Swedish Academy (1932).

Siwertz began his literary career as an impressionist poet. His poetry collection Dreams of the Street (1905) is lyrically melancholy in tone. As a prose writer, Siwertz was a master of realism and an absorbing storyteller. His novels Pirates on Lake Mälaren (1911) and An Idler (1914), influenced by H. Bergson, are permeated with social and philosophic pessimism. Siwertz’s novel Downstream (vols. 1-2, 1920; Russian translation, 1928)—the history of a bourgeois family’s disintegration—is keenly satirical and psychologically penetrating. The novel The Great Department Store (1926; abridged Russian translation, 1927) and the play A Crime (1933) deal with topical sociopolitical issues. Some short stories by Siwertz were translated into Russian in the early 20th century.

WORKS

Samlade dikter, 2nd ed. Stockholm, 1949.
Att vara ung. Stockholm, 1963.
In Russian translation:
“Poslednii parusnik.” In the collection Shvedskaia novella XIX-XX vv. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCES

Stolpe, S. Sigfrid Siwertz. Stockholm, 1933.
Svanberg, N. Studier i Siwertz’prosa. Stockholm, 1941.
Soivio, I. Symbolerna i Sigfrid Siwėrtz prosa. Turku, 1966.

A. A. MATSEVICH [23–1018–]