Comprehensive information and links about August Strindberg

August Strindberg (January 22, 1849 – May 14, 1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright and painter. He is ranked among Sweden's most important authors. Strindberg is known as one of the fathers of modern theater. His work falls into two major literary movements, Naturalism and Expressionism. A little known pseudonym of Strindberg was

Early Years

Born in Stockholm, Strindberg was the third son of Carl Oscar Strindberg, a shipping agent from a bourgeois family, and Ulrika Eleonora (Nora) Norling, a twelve years younger woman of simpler origin, called a "servant woman" in the title of the son's autobiographical novel, ). His paternal grandfather Zacharias was born 1758 as the son of a clergyman in Jämtland and had settled in Stockholm, becoming a well-to-do spice tradesman and a major in the Burghers' Military Corps. Strindberg's aunt Lisette was married to the English-born inventor and industrialist Samuel Owen. Carl Oscar Strindberg's older brother Johan Ludvig Strindberg was a successful businessman, and has been seen as the model for the main protagonist Arvid Falk's wealthy and socially ambitious uncle in August Strindberg's novel ).

Strindberg's own version of his childhood, as he wanted it to be perceived by others, is available to his readers in his novel , but at least one of his biographers, Olof Lagercrantz, warns against using it uncritically as a biographical source. Much of what Strindberg wrote has an autobiographical character, but Lagercrantz points out Strindberg's "talent to make us believe what he wants us to believe" and his unwillingness, already in his own lifetime, to accept any other characterization of his person than the one for which he had himself set the agenda.

From the age of seven, Strindberg grew up in the Norrtull area on the northern, still almost rural, periphery of Stockholm, not far from the the park where Carl Eldh's Strindberg statue was later placed (Tegnérparken). He went to the elementary schools of Klara and Jakob parishes, continuing to the Stockholms Lyceum, a progressive private school populated by boys from upper and upper middle class families. He completed his , his graduation examination giving access to university, on May 25, 1867, and matriculated at the University of Uppsala in the fall of the same year.

Adult Years

He would, on and off for several years, spend time in Uppsala or at home reading for examinations to be taken in Uppsala, meanwhile trying other things. He first left Uppsala in 1868 to work as a schoolteacher, studied chemistry for some time at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm in preparation for medical studies, worked as a private tutor, and was an extra at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm. He returned to Uppsala in January 1870, meanwhile working on a set of plays, of which the first, on the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, opened at the Royal Theatre in September 1870. In Uppsala, he started a small literary club, Runa, with some friends, all taking pseudonyms from Nordic mythology; Strindberg called himself after the god of fertility. He spent a few more semesters in Uppsala, finally leaving in March 1872, never graduating. He would often hold Uppsala and its professors up to ridicule, and a few years later published ("From Fjerdingen and Svartbäcken", 1877), a set of short stories depicting Uppsala student life.

After leaving university for the last time, he started a career as a journalist and critic for newspapers in Stockholm.

Strindberg was married three times, to Siri von Essen (1850-1912), Frieda Uhl (1872-1943), and lastly Harriet Bosse (1878-1961). Though he had children with all of them, his hypersensitive, neurotic character led to bitter divorces. Late in his life he met the young actress and painter Fanny Falkner (1890-1963), who later wrote a book about his last years, but the exact nature of their relationship is debated.

Strindberg's relationships with women were troubled, and his legacy of words and deeds has often been interpreted as misogynist by both his contemporaries as well as modern readers. However, most acknowledge that he had uncommon insight into the hypocrisy of his society's gender expectations, sexual behavior and morality. Marriage and the family were under stress in Strindberg's lifetime as Sweden industrialized and urbanized at a rapid pace. Problems of prostitution and morality were debated heatedly amongst writers and critics as well as politicians. His early writing often dealt with the traditional roles of the sexes imposed by society, which he criticized as unjust.

Strindberg was admired by the working classes as a radical writer. He was a Socialist (or maybe more of an Anarchist) and his daughter Karin married Smirnov, one of the leading Russian Bolsheviks. As for his political standpoints, Strindberg has been widely popular in Socialist countries, such as the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and in Cuba.

He was a multi-faceted author; often extreme. After his death, some psychoanalysts have speculated that his contradictory and difficult character was due to his fear of his own latent homosexuality. Others invoke his early family life. His father, Oskar, was a small-time merchant. His mother, whom he called , and his works from this time are often compared with the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Strindberg's best-known play from this period is ).

Later, he underwent a time of inner turmoil known as the Inferno Period, which culminated in the production of a book written in French,

Afterwards he broke with Naturalism and began to produce works informed by Symbolism. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Modern European stage and Expressionism. ) are well-known plays from this period.

It is not so widely known that he also was a telegrapher, painter, photographer and alchemist.

As a young student, before he became a writer, he worked for a while as an assistant in a chemist's shop in the university town of Lund in southern Sweden.

On his death in 1912 from cancer at the age of 63, August Strindberg was interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm. There are several statues and busts erected of him in Stockholm, most prominently one by Carl Eldh.

"What is economics? A science invented by the upper class in order to acquire the fruits of the labor of the underclass.""I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves."The "national edition" of Strindbergs collected works, published by an editorial committee at Stockholm University (pages in Swedish)Concordance of Strindberg's works, based on the so far completed parts of the "natonal edition", hosted by Språkbanken at Gothenburg UniversityAugust Strindberg Society of Los Angeles, Learn about the great Swedish dramatist at the TASSLA site; plays, discussions, photos, drawings, quotes and reviews.