Walter Dickson (author)

Walter Dickson
Walter Dickson
Born	1916
Died	23 March 1990 (aged 73–74)

Walter Dickson (22 February, 1916 - 23 March, 1990) was a Swedish author.

Biography edit

Dickson was born in New Haven in the United States, where his father worked as a carpenter. The family returned to Sweden in 1921 and settled in Vinberg near Falkenberg, where he was raised by his grandparents.^[1] Dickson graduated in Halmstad in 1936 and received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Gothenburg, but he also studied at universities in Uppsala and Stockholm. From 1943 he was a literature reviewer in the daily newspaper Ny Tid and also contributed to several Finnish and Swedish literary magazines and the trade union press.

Dickson made his debut as author with Perspektiv från Stigberget (1942) and Det gamla huset (1943), both collections of short stories depicting the working-class district of Masthugget in Gothenburg. In his largest work, he wrote a series of novels about his own family and its emigrant fates: Skallgång (1946), Vid havets rand (1948), Storbasens saga (1951), Carmania (1952), Amerika (1954), Oceanisk hemfärd (1955) and Solagömma (1957). Dickson also wrote cultural-historical essays and several books about the landscape of Halland. He was a socialist and in describing older times he is often critical of social ills. Despite this, in the 1970s he wrote for the Centre Party Youth's magazine Ung Center.

His narrative style is considered personal and inventive.

Bibliography edit

Perspektiv från stigberget 1942
Det gamla huset 1943
Störst är kärleken 1945
Skallgång 1946
Hammare och sälgpipa 1947
Vid havets rand 1948
Det eldröda landskapet 1948
Masker och en klippa 1949
Händerna 1950
Storbasens saga 1951
Carmania (1952)
Hjärtfäste och hungertorn 1953
Mitt Halland 1953
Det vidgade jaget 1953
Amerika 1954
Oceanisk hemfärd 1955
En livslivets diktare 1956
Marie! Madrid! 1956
Solgömma 1957
Helhet i snitt och vinklar 1957
Ur min anteckningsbok 1958
Batteristen 1959
Livsens dag 1959
Dödsens liv 1960
På upptäcktsfärd i Ätradalen 1961
Halländsk horisont 1962
Månresa 1962
Solaglaning (1964)
Jävlafora 1966
Lasse i Gatan och andra Hallandssägner 1969
Vart har folket tagit vägen? 1971
Fabler och småstycken från öst och väst 1971
"Broadway Blend": Emigrantberättelser (1973)
Vägakantspredikan 1975
Ringen i djupet 1977
Sacco och Vanzetti 1977
Perspektiv på Kina 1980
Vad är boxning? 1982
Folkafora 1983

Awards edit

Arbetarnas bildningsförbund's literary prize 1957

Sources edit

^ Images of America in Scandinavia - Page 186 Poul Houe, Sven Hakon Rossel - 1998 "Walter Dickson, who was returned to Sweden as a four-year-old boy and raised by grandparents, remained obsessed with America as a land that harbored a personal family secret."

Hedén, Stig J., ed. (1995). Falkenberg - staden som hembygd. ISBN 91-630-3848-X.

[1] Images of America in Scandinavia - Page 186 Poul Houe, Sven Hakon Rossel - 1998 "Walter Dickson, who was returned to Sweden as a four-year-old boy and raised by grandparents, remained obsessed with America as a land that harbored a personal family secret."

[1]