GUSTAFSSON, Lars (Erik Einar) 1936-

PERSONAL: Born May 17, 1936, in Västerås, Sweden; son of Einar H. (a merchant) and Margareta (Carlsson) Gustafsson; married Madeleine Lagerberg (a literary critic), February 24, 1962 (marriage ended); married Dena Alexandra Chasnoff, 1982; children: two sons and two daughters. Education: University of Uppsala, Filosofie Licentiat, 1960, Filosofie Doktor (D. Phil), 1978.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Germanic Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1190. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Bonniers (literary magazine), Stockholm, Sweden, co-editor, 1961-65, editor-in-chief, 1966-72; Expressen (magazine), Stockholm, Sweden, editor, 1961-80; freelance writer, 1972—. University of Texas, Austin, TX, Thord Gray Professor, 1974, visiting writer, 1979, and adjunct professor, 1983—. Research fellow, Bielefeld Institute of Advanced Studies, 1980-81. Vice president, Chasnoff Contacts Systems Inc., TX, 1985-87; chair, Brindfors Intresssenter, 1988-B.

MEMBER: Academy of the Arts, Berlin, Germany, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering, Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich, Germany, Swedish Copyright Law Commission, 1979-82, Konsistorieledamot, Uppsala Universitet (Member of the Board of Regents, Uppsala University), 1994—, Executive Committee of The International Parliament of Writers, Strassbourg, 1994—, Stockholm City University (board member), 1995—, PEN International, Sweden, Swedish Writer's Union, The Author's Guild of America, The Philosophy of Time Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Svenska Dagbladets Pris, 1960; Aftonbladets Pris, 1961; The Swedish Novel Prize, 1979; Carl Emil-Englundpriset, 1980; Prix International Charles Veillon des Essais, 1983; Heinrich Steffens Preis (Germany), 1986; Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), 1986; Signe Eklundh-Elds Pris (Royal Swedish Academy), 1988; Kommendör des Bundesverdienstzeichens (Germany), 1988; Una vita per la Litteratura (Italy), 1989; The Bellman prize of The Royal Swedish Academy, 1990; The Poetry Prize of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, 1993; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow of Poetry (USA), 1994; Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), 1996; The Pilot Prize (Sweden), 1996.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

Poeten Brumbergs sista dagar och död: En romantisk berättelse (title means "The Last Days and Death of the Poet Brumberg: A Romantic Story"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1959.

Bröderna: En allegorisk berättelse (title means "The Brothers: An Allegorical Story"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1960.

Följeslagarna: En äventyrsberättelse (title means "The Travel Company: An Adventure Story"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1962.

Den egentliga berättelsen om herr Arenander (title means "The Essential Story of Mr. Arenander"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1966.

Förberedelser till flykt och andra berättelser (title means "Preparations for Flight and Other Tales"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1963, new edition with new postscript, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1976.

Herr Gustafsson själv (novel; title means "Mr. Gustafsson Himself"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1971.

Yllet (novel; title means "The Wool"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1973.

Sommar berättelser: Sex svenska noveller (title means "Summer Stories: Six Swedish Novellas"), Sveriges Radio (Stockholm, Sweden), 1973.

Familjefesten (novel; title means "The Family Meeting"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1975.

Sigismund: Ur en polsk barockfurstes minnen (novel; title means "Sigismund: From the Memories of a Polonian Baroque Prince"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1976, translated as Sigismund, New Directions (New York, NY), 1985.

Tennisspelarna, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1977, translated by Yvonne I. Sandström as The Tennis Players, New Directions (New York, NY), 1984.

Den lilla världen (title means "The Small World"), Alba (Stockholm, Sweden), 1977.

En biodlares död, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1978, translated by Janet K. Swaffar and Guntram H. Weber as The Death of a Beekeeper, afterword by Janet K. Swaffar, New Directions (New York, NY), 1981.

Berättelser om lyckliga människor, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1981; translated by Yvonne L. Sandström and John Weinstock as Stories of Happy People, New Directions (New York, NY), 1986.

Sorgemusik för frimurare, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1983; translated by Yvonne L. Sandström as Funeral Music for Freemasons, New Directions (New York, NY), 1987.

Bernard Foys tredje rockad, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1986; translated by Yvonne L. Sandström as Bernard Foy's Third Castling, New Directions (New York, NY), 1988.

Samlade berättelser (title means "Collected Stories"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1987.

Det sällsamma djuret från norr och andra science fiction-berättelser (title means "The Strange Animal from the North and Other Science-Fiction Stories"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1989.

En kakelsättares eftermiddag (novel), Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1991, translated by Tom Geddes as The Tiler's Afternoon, New Directions (New York, NY), 1993.

Historien med hunden: Ur en texansk konkursdomares dagböcker och brev (novel), Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1993, translated by Tom Geddes as The Tale of a Dog: From the Diaries and Letters of a Texan Bankruptcy Judge, New Directions (New York, NY), 1999.

Tjänarinnan: En kärleksroman, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1996.

POEMS

Ballogfararna (title means "The Aeronauts"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1962.

En förmiddag i Sverige: Dikter (title means "A Morning in Sweden"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1963.

En resa till jordens medelpunkk och andra dikter (title means "A Journey to the Middle-Point of the Earth and Other Poems"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1966.

En privatmans dikter (title means "The Poems of a Private Man"), PAN/Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1967.

Bröderna Wright uppsöker Kitty Hawk: Och andra dikter (title means "The Wright Brothers in Search of Kitty Hawk"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1968.

Kärleksförklaring till en sefardisk dam (title means "Declaration of Love to a Sephardic Lady"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1970.

Varma rum och kalla (title means "Warm Rooms and Cold"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1972.

Fosterlandet under jorden (title means "The Native Country under the Earth"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1973.

Sonetter (title means "Sonnets"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1977.

Artesiska brunnar cartesianska drömmar: Tjugotvå lärodikter (title means "Artesian Wells Cartesian Dreams"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1980.

Dikter (bilingual edition with translation into Italian by Giacomo Oreglia), Italica (Stockholm, Sweden), 1980.

Ur bild i bild: Samlade dikter 1950-1980 (title means "Out of the Picture, in the Picture: Collected Poems 1950-1980"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1982.

Världens tystnad före Bach, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1982, translated as The Stillness of the World before Bach: New Selected Poems, edited by Christopher Middleton, New Directions (New York, NY), 1988.

Fåglarna, och andra dikter (title means "Birds, and Other Poems"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1984.

Den skapande impulsen (title means "The Creative Impulse"), Brindfors (Stockholm, Sweden), 1989.

Förberedelser för vintersäsongen: Elegier och andra dikter (title means "Preparations for the Winter Season: Elegies and Other Poems"), Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1990.

Där alfabet har tvåhundra bokstaver: Samlade dikter, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1992.

Senkista: Dikter, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1994.

Elegies and Other Poems, selected and translated by Christopher Middleton, with other translations by Yvonne Sandström, Bill Brookshire, and Philip Martin, New Directions (New York, NY), 2000.

PLAYS

Två maktspel: Tebjudningen som inte ville ta slut; Den nattliga hyllningen (title means "Two Plays on Power: The Tea Party That Did Not Want to End [and] Celebration at Night"; the latter play first produced in Zurich in 1970), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1970.

Den nattliga hyllningen (three-act), first produced on Swedish television, 1971.

Huset i Oneida, first produced on Swedish radio, 1972.

EDITOR

(With Hans Ylander) Segla: Tretton berättelser om segling i dikt och verklighet (title means "Thirteen Stories about Sailing in Fiction and Reality"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1963.

(Editor) Ingemar Willgert, Ur mitt inre: Eller, Mellan mark och sky (title means "From My Inner Life; or, Between Ground and Sky"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1964.

(With Daniel Hjorth) Ny svensk berättarkonst (title means "New Swedish Prose"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1966.

Svensk dikt: Från trollformler till Björn Håkanson: En antologi (title means "Swedish Poetry: From Magic Formulae to Björn Håkanson: An Anthology"), Wahlström & Widstrand (Stockholm, Sweden), 1968, revised edition, 1980.

(With Torkel Rasmusson) Dikterna från 60-talet (title means "The Poems of the Sixties"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1970.

Forskningsfält och metoder inom litteraturvetenskapen (title means "The Field of Research and Methods within Literature"), Wahlström & Widstrand (Stockholm, Sweden), 1970.

(With Eva Waller) Delat ansvar: En antologi om människan och miljön (title means "Shared Responsibility: An Anthology on People and the Environment"), Rabén & Sjögren (Stockholm, Sweden), 1971.

Fransk poesi 1910-1970 (title means "French Poetry 1910-1970"), FIB:s Lyrikklubb (Stockholm, Sweden), 1974.

(With Wolf Lepenies) Nemesis divina, by Carl von Linné, Hanser (Munich, Germany), 1981.

Frihet och fruktan (title means "Freedom and Fear"), by Per Ahlmark, Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1985.

Fyra poeter: Gustaf Adolf Fredenlund, Bernard Foy, Ehrmine Wikström, Jan Bohman (title means "Four Poets"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1988.

OTHER

Virtus politica: Politisk etik och nationellt svärmeri i den tidigare stormaktstidens litteratur (title means "Political Ethics and National Obsessions in the Literature of Previous Periods of Great Power"), Almqvist & Wiksells (Uppsala and Stockholm, Sweden), 1956.

Järfällboken (title means "The Järfälla Book"), Järfälla kommunalfullmäktige (Järfälla, Sweden), 1957.

Vägvila: Ett mysteriespel på prosa (title means "A Stop on the Way: A Mysterious Play on Prose"), Siesta (Uppsala, Sweden), 1957.

(With Lars Bäckström) Nio brev om romanen (title means "Nine Letters on the Art of the Novel"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1961.

Konsten att segla med drakar och andra scener ur privatlivet (title means "The Art of Sailing with Kites and Other Scenes from Private Life"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1969.

Utopier och andra essär om dikt och liv (title means "Utopias and Other Lectures on Literature and Life"), PAN/Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1969.

Kommentarer (title means "Comments"), Gidlund (Stockholm, Sweden), 1972.

(With Jan Myrdal) Den onödiga samtiden (essays; title means "The Non-Necessary Contemporary World"), PAN/Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1974.

Världsdelar: Reseskildringar (title means "Continents: Travels"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1975.

Strandhugg i svensk poesi: Femton diktanalyser, FIB:s Lyrikklubb Tiden (Stockholm, Sweden), 1976, translated as Forays into Swedish Poetry, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1978.

Språch och lögn (title means "Language and Lie"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1978.

Kinesisk höst (title means "Chinese Autumn"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1978.

Filosofier: Essäer (title means "Philosopies: Essays"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1979.

Konfrontationer: Stycken om konst, litteratur och politik (title means "Confrontations: Pieces on Art, Literature, and Politics"), PAN/Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1979.

I mikroskopet: Banaliteter och brottstycken (title means "Under the Microscope: Banalaties and Fragments"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1979.

Afrikanskt försök: En essä om villkoren (title means "African Attempt"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1980.

För liberalismen: En stridsskrift (title means "For Liberalism: A Controversial Essay"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1981.

Litteraturhistorikern Schück (title means "The Literary Historian Schück"), Almqvist & Wiksell (Stockholm, Sweden), 1983.

Stunder vid ett trädgårdsbord; stycken om konst och litteratur (title means "Moments at a Garden Table: Pieces on Art and Literature"), Alba (Stockholm, Sweden), 1984.

Bilderna på Solstadens murar: Essäer om ont och gott (title means "Pictures on Solstaden's Walls: Essays of Good and Evil"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1985.

Frihet och frukten 22 brev (title means "Freedom and Fear: 22 Letters"), Bonnier (Stockholm, Sweden), 1985.

Estetik i förvandling: Estetik och literraturhistoria i Uppsala från P.D.A. Atterbom till B.E. Malmström (title means "Aesthetics in Transformation"), Almqvist & Wiksell (Stockholm, Sweden), 1986.

Spegelskärvor (title means "Fragments of a Mirror"), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1987.

Samlade berättelser (essays), Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1987.

(Translator) Sonetterna till Orfeus (title means "Sonnets to Orpheus"), by Rainer Maria Rilke, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1987.

Problemformuleringsprivilegiet: Samhällsfilosofiska studier, Norstedt (Stockholm, Sweden), 1989.

Landskapets långsamma förändringar, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1992.

De andras närvaro: Essäer om konsten som kunskapskälla, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1995.

Vänner bland de döda; essäer om litteratur, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1997.

Strövtg i hembygden, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1999.

Meditationer: En filosofisk bilderbok (title means "Meditations: A Philosophical Picture Book"), Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 2000.

Ett minnepalats: Vertikala memoarer (memoir), Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 2000.

Also the author of Variationer över ett tema av Silfverstople, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1996, Windy berätter: Om sitt liv, om de försvunna och om dem som ännu finns kvar, Natur och Kultur (Stockholm, Sweden), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: A prolific novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer, philosopher Lars Gustafsson is known as an incisive critic of contemporary Swedish society. He once commented: "My writing is mainly an inventory of the different layers of lies and truth in the society where I live."

Among Gustafsson's most important works is his five-novel cycle which includes Herr Gustafsson själv, Yllet, Familjefesten, Sigismund: Ur en polsk barockfurstes minnen, and En biodlares död. Each volume is narrated by a character named Lars, who seeks transcendence over the deadening forces in his culture. The first volume, according to Yvonne L. Sandström in Encyclopedia of World Literature, is autobiographical and is based on Gustafsson's experience as an editor. Yllet, set in rural Västmanland, explores themes of depopulation and dehumanization. Familjefesten is an expose of corruption and political power, while Sigismund delves into the theme of the subconscious. In the final volume, En biodlares död, Lars is a beekeeper; the image of the hive, according to Contemporary World Writers contributor Peter Hertz-Ohmes, suggests a culture in which success depends on "expendable and replaceable insects. How then is the insect to assert his own worth over that of the hive?" The critic went on to note that "Gustafsson's protagonists seek a Virgil or a Beatrice to lead them to what he again and again calls 'cracks in the wall,'" which offer them a way to escape "an oppressively ordinary environment where unheroic yet deliberate selfsacrifice becomes the reflexive response to being victimized by a self-perpetuating utopian bureaucracy."

Gustafsson, who now teaches at the University of Texas, made Texas the setting for his novel Historien med hunden: Ur en texansk konkursdomares dagböcker och brev. Structured in thirty-one brief vignettes, the book describes the efforts of a Jewish bankruptcy court judge, Erwin Caldwell, to come to grips with the possibility that his revered mentor, professor Jan van de Rouwers, may have been a Nazi collaborator in the Netherlands during World War II. Reviewers of the English translation admired the novel's unusual power. A contributor to Publishers Weekly found it a "provoking" and "bleak" story, while Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, in New York Times Book Review, described the novel as a "haunting and sparely told investigation into moral bankruptcy."

Gustafsson's memoir, Ett minnepalats; Vertikala memoarer, employs a fragmented rather than a chronological approach. In this book, the author chooses images and memories from his past as a starting point for extended ruminations on many themes. Raymond E. Lindgren of World Literature Today found the book "full of wisdom, pungent comments, and interesting views," and concluded that Gustafsson "is driven to express himself, and he does it well."

Meditationer: En filosofisk bilderbok is a philosophical exploration of human knowledge and ethics. World Literature Today contributor Brita Stendahl, who found the book "inspired and inspiring," commented that "On subject after subject Gustafsson brings forth new angles in his philosophical meditations, forcing us to think outside conventional lines."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary World Writers, second edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1993, pp. 217-20.

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century, third edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999, pp. 323-24.

PERIODICALS

Antioch Review, summer, 1982, review of The Death of a Beekeeper, p. 374; fall, 1987, review of Funeral Music for Freemasons, p. 499.

Atlantic, August, 1993, review of A Tiler's Afternoon, p. 110.

Hudson Review, summer, 1989, review of Bernard Foy's Third Castling, p. 337.

Library Journal, April 15, 1983, review of The Tennis Players, p. 840; February 1, 1985, Ulla Sweedler, review of Sigismund, p. 112.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 28, 1983, review of The Tennis Players, p. 8; June 20, 1993, review of A Tiler's Afternoon, p. 9.

New Statesman, June 19, 1998, review of The Tale of a Dog, p. 49.

New Yorker, January 11, 1982, John Updike, review of The Death of a Beekeeper, p. 92; January 2, 1984, John Updike, review of The Tennis Players, p. 87; December 6, 1993, review of A Tiler's Afternoon, p. 143.

New York Times Book Review, September 7, 1986, Eric O. Johannesson, review of Stories of Happy People, p. 18; June 28, 1987, Arthur J. Sabatini, review of Funeral Music for Freemasons, p. 24; December 25, 1988, Ellen Pall, review of Bernard Foy's Third Castling, p. 5; October 10, 1993, Bruce Allen, review of A Tiler's Afternoon, p. 20; April 4, 1999, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, review of The Tale of a Dog, p. 17.

Observer (London), August 19, 1990, review of The Death of a Beekeeper, p. 50.

Present Tense, July-August, 1989, Gabriel Motola, review of Bernard Foy's Third Castling, p. 55.

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 1981, Barbara A. Bannon, review of The Death of a Beekeeper, p. 102; February 11, 1983, review of The Tennis Players, p. 64; December 14, 1984, review of Sigismund, p. 38; April 18, 1986, review of Stories of Happy People, p. 64; April 22, 1988, review of The Stillness of the World before Bach, p. 80; December 14, 1998, review of The Tale of a Dog, p. 57.

Review of Contemporary Fiction, fall, 1986, review of Stories of Happy People, p. 138.

Southwest Review, winter, 1991, Clifford Endres, "Lars Gustafsson: Life, Landscapes, and Labyrinths," p. 120.

Studies in Short Fiction, summer, 1987, review of Stories of Happy People, p. 316.

Times Literary Supplement, July 23, 1993, review of A Tiler's Afternoon, p. 20; June 12, 1998, review of The Tale of a Dog, p. 23.

Virginia Quarterly Review, autumn, 1982, review of The Death of a Beekeeper, p. 130; winter, 1984, review of The Tennis Players, p. 25.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1982, review of Berättelser om lyckliga människor, p. 707; winter, 1982, review of Artesiska brunnar cartesianskadrömmar, p. 125; spring, 1983, review of Världens tystnad före Bach, p. 303; winter, 1983, review of Ur Bild i Bild, p. 123; summer, 1984, review of Sorgemusik for Frimurare, p. 430; summer, 1985, review of Faglarna, p. 441; autumn, 1985, review of Stunder vid ett Tradgardsbord, p. 610; winter, 1988, review of Bernard Foys Tredje Rockad, p. 144; spring, 1989, George C. Schoolfield, review of Die Kunst, den November zu uberstehen und andere Geschichten, p. 324; autumn, 1990, Erik Thygesen, review of Det sällsamma djuret från norr och andra science fiction-berättelser, p. 656; winter, 1990, George C. Schoolfield, review of Fyra poeter, p. 135; winter, 1993, Rochelle Wright, review of En kakelsättares eftermiddag, p. 199; spring, 1994, Raymond E. Lindgren, review of Historien med hunden, p. 383; spring, 1995, Raymond Lindgren, review of Ett minnepalats, p. 382; winter, 1995, review of Senkista, p. 167; spring, 1997, review of Variationer över ett tema av Silfverstople, p. 405; winter, 1997, review of Tjänarinnan, p. 172; winter, 2001, Brita Stendahl, review of Meditationer, p. 158.*