A
photograph of Strindberg, taken
during his last walk in April of
1912, shows a dark figure
surrounded by whirling snow. His
face is in shadow, almost blank.
The expression changes: a sick,
introspective old man, an
aggressive hunter, an elder
reconciled with the world.
Compare that picture with one
from the same month in 1875. It
shows a somewhat effeminate,
elegant young man who, with eyes
wide open, stares determinedly
at something slightly beyond the
camera. The two pictures span a
writing career encompassing
close to seventy volumes and
more than ten thousand letters.
The images span a life; three
marriages, five children, long
visits abroad, numerous homes,
several court proceedings,
innumerable friendships and
almost as many severed bonds.
The productive life of
Strindberg parallels almost
exactly a historical epoch
beginning around 1870 (the
Franco-German War 1870-71) and
ending dramatically with the
beginning of World War I in
1914. During that period the
industrial revolution culminates
in a new world order with the
imperialist West dominating
world politics. It is the glory
days of the bourgeoisie, often
symbolized by the British
Victorian era. To the heroes of
Jules Verne anything was
possible; Around the World in 80
Days was an astounding world hit
in 1873. The Stockholm
Exhibition in 1897 was dominated
by the Hall of Industry and the
Swedish engineer S. A. Andrè
flew a hot air balloon toward
the North Pole (one of his
companions was the nephew and
godson of Strindberg; Nils).
This was the birth of modernity
and of modern Sweden. In 1850
people travelled by horse and
carriage, fifty years later
people drove cars. During the
same period the whole
infrastructure in Stockholm
changed; gas lights, water
pipes, telephones and trolleys
were installed, making the city
the industrial center of the
country. A new city plan was
developed, something Strindberg
used as a symbol of modernity
and change in his poem
“Esplanadsystemet” (1883). The
city grew beyond its old
boundaries to the current
dimensions. At the same time,
this was when the labor movement
and revolutionary groups were
born, as a reaction to the
bourgeoisie and the increasingly
visible gaps between social
classes. 1848, the year
Strindberg was conceived (and
which he referred to more often
than his birth year), was the
year of the February revolution
in France, and the Swedish
translation of the Communist
Manifesto, published in London
that very year. 1879 was
distinguished not only by the
publication of Röda rummet
(The
Red Room) but also by the labor
strike in Sundsvall; the first
major, well organized strike in
Sweden. During this time period
the Swedish Social Democratic
Labor Party (Socialdemokratiska
Arbetarepartiet) was formed, as
well as the Swedish Trade Union
Confederation
(“Landsorganisationen” or “LO”)
and the Swedish Employers’
Confederation (“Svenska
Arbetsgivareföreningen” or
“SAF”) Sweden’s government
changed from a parliament of
estates to a parliamentary
democracy. It was a dynamic,
transformative era, and
Strindberg rode the top of the
wave of change. He was always
looking for conflicts on which
he could take a position, and
wrongs (real or imaginary) that
he could right; any topic on
which he could sharpen his pen.
It is difficult to describe
August Strindberg; his books and
his life and person seem
impossible to summarize or
explain – as if his life was a
work of art. Indeed, he
consciously shaped a persona
through his letters and
ostensibly autobiographical
works, such as Tjänstekvinnans
son (The Son of a Servant,
1886-87, 1909) portraying his
marriage to Siri von Essen in En dåres försvarstal
(A Madman’s
Defense, 1895), and his mental
crisis in Inferno (Inferno,
1897). Scholars agree that he
staged his biography; and he
considered the notion himself.
On January 24, 1901, he wrote in Ockulta dagboken (The Occult
Diary) ”I think of my life thus:
what if all the terrible things
I have experienced were staged
for me, so that I might become a
writer and portray all kinds of
spiritual conditions and all
kinds of situations. I was a
writer at twenty. But if my life
had been calm and uneventful I
would have nothing to say. ”
This self-presentation is
probably the reason that the
powerful persona of Strindberg
has never detracted from his
art, (as opposed to the life and
work of someone like Carl Jonas
Love Almqvist). What scholars
disagree about, is to what
extent and how consciously he
reconstructed his story. Johan
August Strindberg is born the
third son (the first within
wedlock) of steamship
commissioner Carl August
Strindberg and Ulrika Eleonora
(Nora) Norling, daughter of a
master tailor. Their home is
solidly bourgeois: well ordered
and a little rigid, but
prosperous and safe. For most of
his childhood, Strindberg’s
family lives in various
“malmgårdar” by Nortullsgatan,
then almost in the country.
(“Malmgårdar” were summer houses
built for the elite mostly in
the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, usually with stables
and livestock, often with large
gardens for cultivating exotic
plants or medical herbs.) His
mother was from a lower social
background than her husband, but
was not a maid; on the contrary
she had both servants and
housekeeper. She is described as
kind and considerate, but
withdrawn, and is soon worn out
by constant pregnancies. She
gives birth to eleven children,
of which seven survived: Axel,
Oscar, August, Olof (Olle),
Anna, Elisabeth and Eleonora
(Nora). Already in 1862 she dies
of pulmonary tuberculosis, just
after her thirty-ninth birthday.
Within a year of her death, his
father remarries; his bride is
the thirty years younger,
twenty-year old housekeeper.
Strindberg is thirteen. At
school he is described as shy
and retiring, but his
self-esteem is strong and he is
also the only one of the
children who graduates from
high-school. After graduation,
he goes to Uppsala to study, but
without much commitment or
success. Simultaneously, he
takes numerous odd jobs and
eventually begins to concentrate
on an acting career. As he tells
it, his writing talent is
brought to life in 1870, when he
fails an employment test. The
day after he wakes up hung over
and unbalanced, he begins to
fantasize, and after a few hours
he has finished a comedy; it
takes him four days to write it
down. At a furious pace, he
continues to produce one piece
after another. He is immediately
successful and a couple of his
plays are produced at the Royal
Theatre. When things go well, he
describes himself as drunk with
happiness, when adversity comes,
he threatens suicide. Despite
his intermediate position in the
family, stories about him bring
to mind a typical youngest child
- always on the move in order to
keep up with the older siblings,
with a constant feeling of being
neglected and overlooked -
always being too little. In
1872, twenty-three years old, he
is ready for his masterpiece.
That summer he moves with three
companions to what became his
summer paradise, Kymmend?in the
Stockholm archipelago. In
exactly two months he writes
Mäster Olof (Master Olof)– the
play about Olaus Petri, leader
of the Swedish Reformation in
the sixteenth century. A
powerful drama that he will
return to and rework over and
over in the coming years. To
Strindberg's despair and rage
the play is rejected. To support
himself, he starts working as a
freelance writer. He writes
about every topic imaginable for
all kinds of newspapers and
magazines, among others Dagens
Nyheter. He has a violent
quarrel with his father leading
to a break; they never again see
each other. He has already, in
1874, met and fallen in love
with Siri von Essen, a one year
younger Finno-Swedish woman with
dreams of becoming an actress.
She is in a marriage of
convenience, her husband a
captain Carl Gustav Wrangel.
After a chaotic period of
courtship they married on New
Year Eve 1877-78. The following
year the two work on their
artistic careers and the money
Siri brought into the marriage
gives them a carefree life. But
their extravagant lifestyle and
a recession combine to tap their
resources and in January of 1879
Strindberg is forced into
personal bankruptcy. It puts him
back at his desk, producing
another feat to rise again. In
November of that year Röda
rummet (The Red Room) is in the
book stores and becomes an
instant success. The milieus and
the characters are from his time
as a freelance writer, and
readers experience the portrayal
as unvarnished, almost crude.
The novel becomes the big topic
of conversation and Strindberg
once and for all enters into the
center of public consciousness.
Another successful and
relatively quiet period begins.
Strindberg collects materials
and writes historical works;
among other things he is
involved in collecting artifacts
for Nordiska Museet (the Nordic
Museum). But in 1881 he can no
longer keep from sticking his
chin out. He attacks Erik Gustaf
Geijer’s Swedish history,
Geijer, at that time the
national authority on Swedish
history, as being too centered
on royalty at the expense of the
people, promoting his own
Svenska folket i helg och söken
(The Swedish People at Work and
Play)1981. The reaction is
instantaneous and violent: from
this point, Strindberg is the
portal figure of the young
generation. He further
intensifies the conflict by
berating the establishment in
the satire Det nya riket (The
New Kingdom) 1882. The next year
the family travels to the
continent. Strindberg wants
peace and quiet to work and Siri
is forced to give up her acting
ambitions. The couple have two
children, Karin and Greta (3 and
2 years old respectively), and a
son (Hans) is on his way. They
plan to return to Sweden after
the winter but will remain
abroad for nearly six years.
They journey to France,
Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and
Denmark. The family moves
constantly. Strindberg visits
Sweden only once during this
period. Reluctantly, terrified
of being thrown in jail, he
arrives in October 1884 to face
blasphemy charges for Giftas
(Getting Married). A month later
he gets on the night train to
the continent, acquitted and
declared a hero. Leaving Sweden
does not mean leaving Nordic
culture behind. Strindberg’s
friend and illustrator, the
painter Carl Larson, lives in
France, as do the Norwegian
authors Bjönstjerne Björnson
and Jonas Lie. Even during the
wandering of the next few years
he stays in touch, writes large
numbers of letters and visits
friends. It is a very productive
period, Strindberg writes one
masterpiece after another: En dåres försvarstal,
Tjänstekvinnans son, Fadren,
Fröken Julie and Hemsöborna – a
yearning, fragrant portrait of
the Swedish archipelago. (A
Madman’s Defense, The Son of a
Servant, The Father, Miss Julie,
The People of Hemsö. But it is
also the end of his marriage.
Strindberg is disparaging and
condescending toward women and
he is finally so aggressive in
his comments about women in
general and his wife in
particular that Siri begins to
suspect he has gone mad. When
the family returns to Sweden in
1889, nothing remains but
divorce. It is finalized in
1891. Strindberg is free but he
has lost his inspiration. In
1892 he takes the train to
Germany, settling in Berlin and
gets to know, among others,
Edvard Munch. There he also
meets Frida Uhl in 1893 and a
few months later they are
married. Strindberg is
interested in science and begins
experiments that over time
become increasingly focused on
alchemy. In 1894 the couple's
daughter Kerstin is born. That
summer he travels to Paris and
the Inferno crisis. Strindberg
remains in Paris until the end
of 1896 and there lays the
groundwork for a new direction
in his writing. In Röda Rummet
(The Red Room) his description
of Stockholm ”an evening in the
beginning of May” had been in
competition with the writing of
Victor Hugo – leading man of
French romanticism. With Fröken
Julie (Miss Julie) he created a
naturalistic, psychological
drama inspired by French
naturalism; events are
downplayed, the drama occurs
within the characters and the
dialogue sounds like regular
speech. Now, in the new works,
the struggles of the soul also
give shape to the content and
realism gives way to something
more closely aligned with
symbolism. Strindberg begins Ockulta Dagboken (The Occult
Diary), filled with magical
connections and hallucinatory
experiences. In 1896 he returns
to Sweden where he continues his
experiments and attempts to
interpret the magical and
mystical connections that
surround him, given shape in
Inferno, Till Damaskus
and Ett
drömspel (Inferno, To Damascus
and A Dream Play). At the same
time he begins a series of
historical pieces reminiscent of
his earliest dramatic works:
Gustav Vasa, Erik XIV (Gustav
Vasa, Erik the Fourteenth), etc.
A new productive period has
begun. In 1901 he remarries for
the third and last time. His
wife is the actress Harriet Bosse. In 1902 they have a
daughter, but the marriage falls
apart a year later. In 1907 he
stirs up sentiment with the
satire and caricature Svarta
fanor (Black Banners), the media
reaction is harsh. But this is
just a taste of the last great
battle that is about to take
place, ”Strindbergsfejden”,
the Strindberg feud. In 1908 he
has moved to his last dwelling,
”Blå Tornet” (“the Blue tower”) at
Drottninggatan in Stockholm, and
two years later he makes a
savage attack on the
establishment in a series of
articles. One of the reasons may
be bitterness at seeing his
colleagues honored – Heidenstam
was given an honorary doctorate
in 1909 and Selma Lagerlöf
received the Nobel Prize in
literature – or it may have been
his ambition to shape literary
historiography. In any case the
result is the most extensive
literary debate in Swedish
history – the parties throw
epithets at each other,
surprisingly coarse. The battle
finally fades sixteen months
later after about 465
contributions have been
published in various papers, but
with a ceasefire only - there is
no peaceful settlement. When the
young labor movement celebrates
him as its author on his
birthday in 1912, it is a clear
declaration against the economic
and literary upper class. Just a
few months later Strindberg
falls ill with abdominal pain
and dies. His ex-wife Siri had
died only recently, and in the
same year one of his daughters
as well as his nemesis, the
permanent secretary of the
Swedish Academy, Carl David af
Wirsen, die too. In a letter
Selma Lagerlöf comments
"is it not strange that
Strindberg pulls the people
around him with him into death;
first his wife and his daughter,
and now the man who stood
against him throughout his life.
The chief heads to Valhalla with
a large retinue." (”[...]
är det inte besynnerligt med
Strindberg, som drar de sina med
sig i döden först hustrun och så
dottern, så har han alltså tagit
med sig den man, som stått honom
mest emot hela livet igenom.
Hövdingen drar till Valhall med
stort följe.”) Overall, Strindberg is
undoubtedly our greatest author
ever. His prose is the first
modern Swedish and in its
entirety his work can be
described as the breakthrough of
modern literature in Sweden. The
critic can argue his standing in
a particular genre, but through
his incredible productivity and
his breadth he will always
challenge even the most
reluctant supporter. In
addition, he is doubtlessly the
most prominent dramatist in
Swedish history. Internationally
too, he is our most well known
and influential writer, and the
literature about his life and
works in numerous languages is
almost endless. Biographies are
dominated by two works. The low
key, methodical biography by
Gunnar Brandell’s Strindberg –
ett författarliv (1983-89 ) in
four volumes is the most
comprehensive, detailed, and
most traditionally academic. The
second work, August Strindberg
(1979), by Olof Lagercrantz,
follows closely and animates the
human being and the writer. The
book is colored by Lagercrantz
thesis that Strindberg really
was an introvert, afraid of
revealing himself and staging
his life in letters and
ostensibly autobiographical
texts, particularly during the
Inferno crisis when earlier
scholars have claimed that
Strindberg was mad. Lacercrantz’
biography – the most widespread
– has been translated to English
(1984, transl. by Anselm Hallo),
German (1980, transl. by
Angelika Grundlach), and several
other languages. The standard
English-language biography,
however, seems to be Michael
Meyer’s Strindberg: A biography
(1985), despite some mixed
reviews. Michael Robinson, the
renowned British
Strindberg-scholar, argues that:
"Generally accurate where dates
and other factual details of
e.g. place and publication are
concerned, its reliability is
rendered problematic by Meyer's
antipathy for his subject, a
tendency always to place him in
Ibsen's shadow both as a man and
writer, and a lack of
understanding for the majority
of his works, which he often
misrepresents and sometimes
misinterprets. This is
especially the case where his
prose fiction is concerned, but
also applies to many of the
plays not included in Meyer's
select canon of viable works."
In his recently published The
Cambridge Companion to August
Strindberg (2009), Robinson
mentions an alternative
biography by Birgitta Steene,
The Greatest Fire: A Study of
August Strindberg, (1973), and
describes it as: "A reliable
overview of Strindberg's career
as a whole." In German, besides
the translation of the biography
by Lagercrantz, there is Göran
Sjöströms short biography (pp
17-246) in Der andere
Strindberg: Materialien zu
Malerei, Photographie und
Theaterpraxis Texten von Göran
Sjöström , Ture Rangström und
Wolfgang Pasche (ed. Angelika
Gundlach, 1981). And in French,
there is a biography by Elena
Balzamo, August Strindberg:
visages et destin (1999).