STRINDBERG, JOHAN AUGUST Swedish dramatist, novelist and poet, born in Stockholm Jan. 22, 1849, grew up under poverty-stricken and unhappy conditions, and after a short period at Uppsala university, became a school teacher; then a wealthy doctor interested himself in him and undertook to complete his education in medicine. Strindberg first found his feet as a dramatist. He wrote Hermione (1869), an am bitious tragedy in verse; and a one-act piece, In Rom (1870) was performed. For a year or two he struggled as a journalist in Stock holm, until in 1874 he was appointed librarian in the Royal Library. In these years he completed his first great play, Master Olof (Master Olof, 1874), with the Swedish reformer Olaus Petri, as its central figure, and Roda Rummet (The Red Room, 1879), a satiric novel suggested by The Pickwick Papers. Strindberg then wrote the dramas Gillets hemlighct (The Secret of the Guild, 188o), Lycko-Pers resa (Lucky Peter's Travels, 188o), and Herr Bengts hustru (Sir Bengt's Wife, 1882). In 1882-83 followed the splendid stories of Svenska eiden och eiventyr (Swedish Fates and Adventures), which established his fame. In 1875 he met Siri (Sigrid) Wrangel, the wife of an officer, and became entangled in a fateful passion, which after her divorce in 1877, ended in mar riage. After a year or two, his love turned to suspicious hatred and the first signs showed themselves of persecution mania. He had described his early life in the autobiography, T jeinstekvinnans son (The Son of a Bondswoman, 1886) ; and his unhappy marriage is the theme of the revolting and self-lacerating En dares forsvarstal (A Fool's Defence, 1893). His relations to Siri Wrangel colour all his imaginative work in this period. In the early 'eighties he lived for a time in Paris, and Switzerland, where his literary activity ranged from lyric poetry and satire to studies of the French peasant, and the masterly novels of Utopier i verkligheten (Real ised Utopias, 1885). With the stories and sketches of Giftas (Mar ried, 1884-86) he launched an attack on marriage which involved him in a prosecution, resulting, however, in acquittal. The plays Fadren (The Father, 1887) and FrOken Julie (Lady Julia, 1888) open a new phase in Strindberg's dramatic work, and form a land mark of importance in the history of European realism. Similar plays followed, most of which turn round the author's own marital tragedy. But in those years he also wrote his greatest contribu tions to Swedish fiction, the masterly novels Hemsoborna (The People of Hemso, 1887), and I Haysbandet (In the Outer Skerries, 1890). A very dark period followed. His marriage was dissolved
in 1891; his misery was accentuated by money difficulties, and for a time he hovered on the brink of insanity. A second marriage with an Austrian lady, Frida Uhl was even more disastrous than the first.
The dark experiences of these terrible years found their pre cipitate in Inferno (1897), Legender (1898), and the great alle gorical drama in three parts, Till Damascus (To Damascus, 1898, 1904) ; to this period belong, too, Advent (1899) and the effective play Brott och brott (Crimes and Crimes, 1899). When reconvalescence set in, Strindberg returned to the historical drama and now produced a long_ series of works of power and originality, the finest being perhaps Gustav Vasa (1899) and Gustav Adolf (1900) ; he also wrote a number of symbolic poetic plays, notably Ett Dromspel (A Dream Play, 1902). In 1901 appeared the en gaging drama Pask (Easter) and the masterly realistic tragedy Dodsdansen (The Dance of Death), the greatest of his harrow ing marriage dramas. For the theatre intime which he established in Stockholm, he also wrote many short pieces, prominent among them Spoksonaten (The Ghost Sonata, 1907). Of the prose works of his last period may be mentioned Fagervik och Skamsund (Fair haven and Foulsound, 1902) and Taklagsol (The Festival of the Finished House, 1906), which affords a glimpse into Strindberg's third marriage with the actress Harriet Bosse. In 1903 appeared the last volume of his autobiographical writings, Ensam (Alone), a book of tragic pathos; and in 1907-08 what is perhaps the most significant work of his last period, En bldbok (A Blue Book), of which further volumes were published after his death. Strindberg died in Stockholm on May 14, 1912. He is Sweden's greatest modern writer, and has exerted a deep and lasting influence on the European novel and drama.
BisuoGRAPHY.—The standard edition of Strindberg's Samlade Skrifter is that edited by J. Landquist, 55 vols. (Stockholm, 1912-21). Most of his works have been translated into English and there is a complete German edition by E. Schering ; the chief works have, of course, appeared also in French. The Anglo-Swedish Foundation has begun (1929) the publication of a new translation of his dramas. The chief biographies are by N. Erdmann, Stockholm, 192o, and E. Heden, Stockholm, 1921 ; there is an English life by Miss L. Lind of Hageby, London, 1913. The specialist literature on Strindberg in Swedish, English, French and German is already large. Here may be mentioned as the most important of recent books, Martin Lamm, Strindbergs dramer, 2 vols., Stockholm, 1924-26.