Eyvind Johnson

Swedish writer

Born: July 29, 1900 · Died: August 25, 1976

Famous Persons

Who was Eyvind Johnson?

Eyvind Johnson (29 July 1900 – 25 August 1976) was a Swedish novelist and short story writer. Johnson was born Olof Edvin Verner Jonsson in a village near the town of Boden in Norrbotten. The small house where he was born is preserved and marked with a commemorative plaque. Johnson left school at the age of thirteen and then held various jobs such as log driving and working at a saw mill and as a ticket-seller and projectionist in a cinema. In 1919 he left his hometown and moved to Stockholm where he began to publish articles in anarchist magazines like Brand. In Stockholm he became friends with other young proletarian writers and started the magazine Vår nutid. He travelled in Germany in the 1920s and lived in Saint-Leu-la-Foret, near Paris, France, between 1927 and 1930 with his wife Aase Christoffersen (1900–1938).

The house in Björkelund where Eyvind Johnson was born in 1900.

Historical significance

Regarded as the most groundbreaking novelist in modern Swedish literature he became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1957 and shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson with the citation: for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom. At this point he had published his first books.

Sources and further reading

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MLA

“Eyvind Johnson.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/eyvind-johnson/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

APA

Eyvind Johnson. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/eyvind-johnson/

Chicago

“Eyvind Johnson.” thisDay. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/eyvind-johnson/.

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