Stig Dagerman

Swedish writer
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Quick Facts
Born:
Oct. 5, 1923, Älvkarleby, Swed.
Died:
Nov. 4, 1954, Enebyberg, near Stockholm (aged 31)

Stig Dagerman (born Oct. 5, 1923, Älvkarleby, Swed.—died Nov. 4, 1954, Enebyberg, near Stockholm) was a Swedish short-story writer, novelist, and playwright whose works, showing the influence of William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, and Dagerman’s older compatriot, Eyvind Johnson, have been held to express a sense of Existentialist anguish.

A journalist, Dagerman scored a critical success with his play Den dödsdömde (first performed, 1947; The Man Condemned to Die). He was associated with the literary magazines 40-tal (1947–48) and Prisma (1948–50). A collection of his stories, translated into English as The Games of Night, appeared in 1959, five years after his suicide.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.