Josef Kjellgren

{{Infobox writer  | name = Josef Kjellgren | image = Josef Kjellgren.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1907|11|13}} | birth_place = {{ill|Mörkö (island)|sv|Mörkö|lt=Mörkö}}, Sweden | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1948|4|8|1907|11|13}} | death_place = Stockholm, Sweden | occupation = Writer, playwright | notableworks = | period = 1929–48 | genre = | magnum opus = | subject = | movement = Modernism | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = }} '''Josef Kjellgren''' (13 November 1907 – 8 April 1948) was a Swedish writer and playwright.<ref name="SBL">[https://sok.riksarkivet.se/SBL/Presentation.aspx?id=11541 Josef Kjellgren, Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon] (in swedish)</ref>

==Biography== Kjellgren was born and grew up on the island of {{ill|Mörkö (island)|sv|Mörkö|lt=Mörkö}} south of Södertälje. Later, his family moved to a residence near Hornstull on Södermalm in Stockholm.

Kjellgren was a proletarian writer and a member of the influential modernist literary group ''Fem unga'' (Five young ones) who published an anthology of the same name in 1929. Kjellgren's main theme was proletarian internationalism and solidarity within the working class. He published modernist proletarian poetry and books about his travels in Europe in the early 1930s, such as ''På snålskjuts genom Europa'' (Across Europe without a penny in my pocket; 1930). He was a journalist and editor of the magazine ''Kulturfront'' from 1942 to 1944.<ref name="SBL" />

Kjellgren is best known for his later novels, including ''Människor kring en bro'' (People around a bridge; 1935), about the building of Västerbron in Stockholm, and ''Smaragden'' (The emerald; 1939). Kjellgren also wrote a play, ''Okänd svensk soldat'' (Unknown Swedish soldier; 1938), which was the basis for the 1948 movie ''Foreign Harbour'' (''Främmande hamn''), directed by Hampe Faustman.<ref name="Holmer">Per Holmer ''Kamp för självkänsla och socialism'', in Josef Kjellgren ''Jag är tusenden'', FIBs Lyrikklubb/Tidens förlag 1975. (in swedish)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://libris.kb.se/hitlist?q=Josef+Kjellgren|title = Josef Kjellgren |website= libris.kb.se |access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref>

Kjellgren died of tuberculosis in 1948 and was buried at Högalids kolumbarium in Stockholm.<ref name="SBL" /><ref name="Holmer" />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kjellgren, Josef}} Category:20th-century Swedish dramatists and playwrights Category:Swedish male poets Category:Writers from Stockholm County Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Category:1907 births Category:1948 deaths Category:20th-century Swedish poets Category:20th-century Swedish male writers Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Sweden Category:Swedish male dramatists and playwrights Category:People from Södertälje Municipality Category:Proletarian literature