Johnson, Eyvind << AY vihn >> (1900-1976), a Swedish novelist, shared the 1974 Nobel Prize for literature with another Swedish writer, Harry Edmund Martinson. Much of Johnson’s fiction deals with his impoverished early years and with political and social issues. He strongly influenced Swedish literature by introducing new themes and experimenting with fresh forms and techniques. Humanitarian values weave through his fiction, reflected in his attacks on totalitarianism.
Eyvind Olof Verner Johnson was born on July 29, 1900, in Svartbjörnsbyn, Sweden, near Boden. Johnson was largely self-educated. He spent much of the 1920’s wandering through Europe working as a manual laborer and a writer, and spending time especially in Paris and Berlin. Johnson’s most important works include four works called The Novel About Olof (1934-1937). The autobiographical novels describe his experiences as a young man living in northern Sweden. The books are considered classics of Swedish working-class fiction. Krilon (1941-1943) is an allegorical trilogy that expresses the author’s opposition to Nazism.
Johnson experimented in some of his fiction, retelling older stories in modern times or with older characters who think and feel like modern people. An example is Return to Ithaca (1946), based on the Odyssey, a classical epic. His later works included such historical novels as The Days of His Grace (1960), set during the A.D. 700’s and 800’s. Johnson died on Aug. 25, 1976.
