Ernst Didring - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ernst Didring was an early 20th century author who wrote mainly of life in his home country of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

(October 18, 1868, Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

- October 13, 1931, Stockholm

Stockholm

Biography

Born October 18, 1868, Didring aspired to a career in teaching, but was unable to complete his studies due to lack of money

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

. Instead, by 1884 he was working as an office clerk in the head office of the Swedish

Sweden

railways, and in 1899 he married a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

teacher, Jeanne Rye. He was very involved in the founding of "Statsbanens Pensonering" in 1910, and was a full time writer from 1914. Between 1915 and 1920 he was the leader of the Swedish red cross for prisoners of the war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

. Also during that time, and then again in 1923 to 1929, he was the leader of Sweden's writers society. In the intervening years (1920–1922) he traveled through Europe (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

). In 1931 he was awarded the prestigious "Large Prize" by the literary institution Samfundet De Nio
Samfundet De Nio
Samfundet De Nio is a Swedish literary society founded on 14 February 1913 in Stockholm by a testamentary donation from writer Lotten von Kraemer. The society has nine members who are elected for life. Its purpose is to promote Swedish literature, peace and women's issues. It mainly presents a...

.

Works

Ernst Didring was a proponent of naturalism

Naturalism (literature)

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...

.

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

Sweden

at the beginning of the 20th century.

Pioneers: A nice and detailed description of the construction of the railway from Kiruna
Kiruna
Kiruna is the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in Lapland province, with 18,154 inhabitants in 2005. It is the seat of Kiruna Municipality Kiruna (Northern Sami: Giron, Finnish: Kiiruna) is the northernmost city in Sweden, situated in Lapland province, with 18,154 inhabitants in 2005. It is...

to Narvik
Narvik
is the third largest city and municipality in Nordland county, Norway by population. Narvik is located on the shores of the Narvik Fjord . The municipality is part of the Ofoten traditional region of North Norway, inside the arctic circle...

.
The Mountain's Song: Here the work in the digging company is shown.
Speculators: The last part describes shareholders of the iron companies in Stockholm - the ups and downs before World War I.

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

Grålöga—Trilogin - The former life in the Stockholm archipelago
Stockholm archipelago
The Stockholm archipelago is the largest archipelago of Sweden, and one of the largest archipelagos of the Baltic Sea.-Geography:The archipelago extends from Stockholm roughly 60 kilometers to the east...

(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 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 especially well-recognized in Germany. Didring also wrote some theater plays which were well known in Stockholm in 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) (or look for "Didring" in the Handikat catalogue).

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