The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Heidenstam, Verner von
(vr´nr fn h´dnstäm) (KEY) , 18591940, Swedish lyric poet, novelist, and essayist. His first volume of poetry, Pilgrimage and Wanderyears (1888), challenged the contemporary realistic and utilitarian Swedish literature. His subjective and personal style was also evident in Poems (1895) and New Poems (1915), which established him as one of Swedens lyric poets. In the historical novels The Charles Men (189798, tr. 1920), Saint Birgittas Pilgrimage (1901), and The Tree of the Folkungs (2 vol., 19057; tr. 1925), he evoked a sense of national continuity. Heidenstam received the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature.