Verner von Heidenstam

a.k.a. Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam

Author Code: NVVH

Educated in art at the Academy of Stockholm and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Heidenstam was not really interested in becoming an artist but had followed his father's request. He returned to Sweden in 1880 and married Emilia Uggla. They then spent a number of years traveling in Europe, returning to Sweden in 1887. In 1888, he published his first book of poetry, Pilgrimage and Wander Years, which was an immediate success. The following year, he published Endymion, his first novel. A neoromantic, Heidenstam's works eventually resulted in his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1916. In the 1920's he built a home at Ovralid near Lake Vattern and spent his remaining years there in ever-diminishing health, publishing his final work in 1929. During his early years he had become friends with August Strindberg, but they eventually parted ways and Strindberg became one of Heidenstam's most ardent critics. Heidenstam's other works include Renaissance (1889), Poems (1895), One People (1899), A King and His Campaigners (1902), The Tree of the Folkungs (1905-07), The Swedes and Their Chieftains (1908-10), New Poems (1915), The Soothsayer (1919) and The Birth of God (1919).