Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793–1866)

Almqvist, an erratic genius, was a productive author, writing romantic poetry, polemical essays, novels, and textbooks. His ideas about the Swedish peasants and the role of women were advanced for his time and got him into considerable trouble. He spent time in the Swedish countryside trying to create a Rousseau-like idyll and even married a woman from the peasant class. When his enthusiasm for that project faded, Almqvist became a school rector in Stockholm but lost the position after his controversial novel Sara Videbeck (1839) appeared. Almqvist tried to support himself as a journalist, but finding himself drawn deeper and deeper in debt-and charged with having poisoned a creditor-he fled Sweden. He lived in the United States for some years and died in exile. (Bowker Author Biography) — beskrivning från Drottningens juvelsmycke… (mer)