AKA Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam

Born: 6-Jul-1859
Birthplace: Olshammar, Sweden
Died: 20-May-1940
Location of death: Övralid, Sweden
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Family Estate, Övralid, Sweden

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author, Poet

Nationality: Sweden
Executive summary: The Charles Men

Verner von Heidenstam was raised in aristocracy, a sick child and a poor student, and as a young man he was sent to study art and literature in Paris. His first book of poems, Vallfart och vandringsår (Pilgrimage and Wander Years), was inspired by a visit to the Middle East, and portrayed that region as a wonderland of exotic pleasures. His most widely-read work was the multi-volume historical novel Karolinerna (The Charles Men), about royal intrigue surrounding Sweden's King Charles XII a century earlier. For his poetry and novels, von Heidenstam was awarded the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Von Heidenstam's obituary in Time said he had "revolted against literary pessimism", but in his last decades his popularity as a writer dwindled, and he wrote virtually nothing. For years he publicly feuded with Swedish playwright August Strindberg, who once described him as "Sweden's most unintelligent man". In the 1985 Swedish mini-series August Strindberg: Ett liv, von Heidenstam was unflatteringly portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård.

Father: Gustaf von Heidenstam (d. 1887 suicide)
Wife: Emilia Uggla (m. 1880, d. 1893)
Wife: Olga Wiberg (m. 1893, div.)
Wife: Greta Sjöberg (m. 1900, div.)
Girlfriend: Kate Bang (cohabited 1920s-1940)

    University: École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France

    Nobel Prize for Literature 1916

Author of books:
Pilgrimage and Wander Years (1888, collected poems)
Endymion (1889)
Hans Alienius (1892, epic poem)
Dikter (1895)
The Charles Men (1898)
Heliga Birgittas Pilgrimsfärjd (1901)
A King and His Campaigners (1902)
Folkunga Trädet (1907)
Svenskarna Och Deras Hövdingar (1910)
Samlade skrifter (1912)
Endymion (1913)
Nya Dikter (1915, collected poems)
The Soothsayer (1919)
Tankar och Teckningar (1920)
The Birth of God (1920)
Skogen Susar (1921)
När Kastanjerna Blommade (1941, memoir, published posthumously)

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