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ALMQVIST, KARL JONAS LUDWIG (1793-1866)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 718 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALMQVIST, KARL See also:JONAS See also:LUDWIG (1793-1866) , See also:Swedish writer, was See also:born at See also:Stockholm in 1793. He became a student at See also:Upsala, where his See also:father was See also:professor of See also:theology, in 18o8, and took his degree in 1815. He began See also:life under highly favour-able auspices; but becoming tired of a university career, in 1823 he threw up the position he held in the See also:capital to See also:lead a See also:colony of See also:friends to the wilds of Wermland. This ideal Scandinavian life soon proved a failure; Almqvist found the See also:pen easier to wield than the plough, and in 1828 he returned to Stockholm as a teacher in the new Elementary School there, of which he became See also:rector in 1829. Now began his See also:literary life; and after bringing out several educational See also:works, he made himself suddenly famous by the publication of his See also:great See also:series of novels, called The See also:Book of the See also:Thorn-See also:Rose (1832-1835). The career so begun See also:developed with extraordinary rapidity ; few writers have equalled Almqvist in productiveness and versatility; lyrical, epic and dramatic poems; romances; lectures; philosophical, aesthetical, moral, See also:political and educational See also:treatises; works of religious edification, studies in lexicography and See also:history, in See also:mathematics and See also:philology, See also:form the most prominent of his countless contributions to See also:modern Swedish literature. So excellent was his See also:style, that in this respect he has been considered the first of Swedish writers. His life was as varied as his See also:work. Unsettled, unstable in all his doings, he passed from one lucrative See also:post to another, at last subsisting entirely on the proceeds of literary and journalistic labour. More and more vehemently he espoused the cause of See also:socialism in his brilliant novels and See also:pamphlets; friends were beginning to leave him, foes beginning to See also:triumph, when suddenly all See also:minor See also:criticism was silenced by the astounding See also:news that Almqvist, convicted of See also:forgery and charged with See also:murder, had fled from See also:Sweden. This occurred in 1851. For many years no more was heard of him; but it is now known that he went over to See also:America and settled in St See also:Louis.

During a See also:

journey through See also:Texas he was robbed of all his See also:manuscripts, among which are believed to have been several unprinted novels. He is said to have appealed in See also:person to See also:President See also:Lincoln, but the robbers could not be traced. The See also:American adventures of Almqvist remain exceedingly obscure, and some of the most remarkable have been proved to be fabulous. In 1865 he returned to See also:Europe, and his See also:strange See also:ALMUCE and sinister existence came to a See also:close at See also:Bremen on the 26th of See also:September 1866. It is by his romances, undoubtedly the best in Swedish, that his literary fame will mainly be supported; but his singular history will always point him out as a remarkable figure even when his works are no longer read. He was another See also:Eugene See also:Aram, but of greater See also:genius, and so far more successful that he escaped the judicial See also:penalty of his crimes. (E.

End of Article: ALMQVIST, KARL JONAS LUDWIG (1793-1866)

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