Olle Hedberg

Olle Hedberg (born May 31, 1899, Norrköping, Sweden—died 1974) was a Swedish novelist whose stylistic precision and elegant craftsmanship served to satirize the conventional world of the middle classes. Beginning with Rymmare och fasttagare (1930; Prisoner’s Base), Hedberg produced a full-length novel almost every year for several decades.

Hedberg’s works of the 1940s—including Karsten Kirsewetter (1945), Bekänna färg (1947; “Confess Colour”), and Bo Stensson Svenningsson (1947)—reveal his search for moral and religious values, with a somewhat posturing and pontificating tone replacing his otherwise more satiric attitude. Hedberg apparently did not find much comfort in this search. In his Dockan dansar klockan slår (1955; “The Doll Dances, the Clock Strikes”) and Djur i bur (1959; Animals in Cages), he is deeply disillusioned and mercilessly castigates the hypocrisy and sterility of middle-class society. His first novel, Tank att ha hela livet främför sig (“Imagine Having Your Entire Life Ahead of You”), was published the year he died.