Ernst Didring at 1900

Ernst Didring (October 18, 1868, Stockholm - October 13, 1931, Stockholm) - Swedish writer.

Biography

• wanted to become a teacher, but could not finish his studies due to lack of money,
• 1884 worked as an office clerk in the head office of the Swedish railways,
• 1899 he married the Danish teacher Jeanne Rye,
• was very involved in founding "Statsbanens Pensonering" (1910),
• full time writer from 1914,
• 1915-20 leader of the Swedish red cross for prisoners of the war,
• 1915-20 and 1923-29 leader of Sweden's writers society,
• 1920-22 traveled through Europe (France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany),
• 1931 Prize of the "Samfundet De Nios" (http://www.samfundetdenio.com/storapriset3.html).

Works

Ernst Didring at 1930

Ernst Didring was a proponent of the naturalism.

His main series and best known book is the novel trilogy Malm (iron ore) which was published 1914-1925. It describes the life in the north of Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century.

1. Pioneers: A nice and detailed description of the construction of the railway from Kiruna to Narvik.
2. The mountains's song: Here the work in the digging company is shown.
3. Speculators: The last part describes share holders of the iron companies in Stockholm - the up and down before world War I.

Some of his other novels are also important in terms of the history of the Swedish literature:

• Cyclus "Skärgårdslivet" - Life in the Baltic Archipelagos (1925-27);
• "Världsspindeln" - The Worlds Spider (ca. 1925);
• "Det mörkblå frimärket" - The Darkblue Stamp (1932).

They paint a comprehensive picture of the life in the Swedish society around 1900 which is sometimes relevant even today. Often there were only several months between the publication of the original book and the translation to other European languages. His work was recognized particularly in Germany. Furthermore he wrote some theater plays which were well known in Stockholm at his time.

Many of his books can still be bought in second hand bookshops or loaned from Swedish or German libraries. There are also some unabrigded audiobooks available from the Swedish (Talboksbiblioteket (http://www.tpb.se)) (or look for "Didring" in the Handikat (http://www.btj.se/btjcgi/hkat/hkinit.cgi) catalogue).

See also

List of Swedish language writers

Please find the original text on LYSATOR (http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/authors/didriern.html#en). This entry is a compressed translation from the Swedish and German Wikipedia versions.