Strindberg and Friends

Harry G. Carlson (1930 – 2012), professor of theater history and modern drama and internationally published scholar and translator of Swedish literature, is best known as a leading authority on the works of August Strindberg and Lars Forsell, and as a great Strindberg scholar who above all others transformed the Swedish playwright from a peculiar Swede to a foundational figure of literary modernism. His books and scholarly articles were published in both English and Swedish and were translated into many other languages.

Harry G. CarlsonHis most influential books include Strindberg and the Poetry of Myth and Out of Inferno: Strindberg’s Reawakening as an Artist. At the time of his death he left behind a yet unpublished manuscript on August Strindberg as a painter and his relationship to French artists and artist colonies of his time. He also translated many scholarly works from Swedish into English, including August Strindberg by Martin Lamm (1971) and The Art of Acting by Frederik Schyberg (1961), which became classic texts for students of drama and theater worldwide. Carlson’s highly praised play translations (found in his Strindberg: Five Plays and in Modern Nordic Plays: Sweden, 1980, among other published volumes) continue to be widely read and produced by theater companies internationally. He also had a life-long engagement with the theater and worked on productions both in Sweden and in the U.S. as dramaturg and simultaneous interpreter.