Dan Andersson was a Swedishauthor, poet, and composer. A nom de plume he sometimes used was Black Jim. Although he is counted among the Swedish proletarian authors, his works are not limited to that genre.
Early life
Born in Grangärde parish in the province of Dalarna, Andersson grew up under harsh conditions in the village of Skattlösberg. His father Adolf was a primary school teacher there, and his mother Augusta had also taught in the local school. The village lies in the "Finn Woods" of southern Dalarna, where Forest Finns had immigrated to cultivate new land. On his father's side, Andersson descended from these Finnish settlers. Andersson took odd jobs during the first years of his life, for instance as a forestry worker and school teacher. He found it difficult to make a living. The family considered trying to find a better life in the United States, and Andersson was sent to live in Forest Lake, Minnesota as a 14-year-old in 1902 to see if it would be possible. But he wrote to them, saying that there were no better opportunities there than in Sweden, upon which his father asked him to come home. The family moved from Skattlösberg in 1905, but Andersson returned there to live with his parents and siblings 1911-1915. During this period, he wrote a number of stories and poems. Large parts of his Kolarhistorier and Kolvaktarens visor were probably created during this time. In 1918 Andersson married primary school teacher Olga Turesson, the sister of troubadour Gunnar Turesson.
Brunnsvik
During the years 1914-1915, Andersson studied at the Brunnsvik folk high school, with, among others, future authors :SV:Harry Blomberg|Harry Blomberg and :SV:Ragnar Jändel|Ragnar Jändel. He was also a good friend of Karl Lärka, who would become a well-known documentary photographer. From this time onwards he was to become active as an author, writing poems and songs about his home region, which are read and sung almost a century later in Swedish homes. Gunde Johansson and Thorstein Bergman are among the best known of his interpreters. Andersson also set some of his lyrics to music — most notably Till min syster and Jungman Jansson — and played the accordion and violin. He was a co-worker at the Social Democratic newspaper Ny Tid in Gothenburg 1917-1918, and he also translated texts by Rudyard Kipling and Charles Baudelaire into Swedish. Despite his simple upbringing, Andersson was highly educated.
Death
Dan Andersson died in room 11 at Hotel Hellman in Stockholm on 16 September 1920, where he had gone to look for a job at the newspaper Social-Demokraten. The hotel staff had used hydrogen cyanide against bedbugs and hadn't cleared the room as prescribed. At 3 p.m. Andersson was found dead. At the same time, insurance inspector Elliott Eriksson from Bollnäs also died. The hotel was located at Bryggaregatan 5 in Stockholm, but it was demolished in the 1960s. Andersson is buried at Lyviken Cemetery in Ludvika.
Legacy
Dan Andersson's poetry enjoys a broad popularity among the Swedish people because of its naturalist mysticism and searching for God. In 2005, Sofia Karlsson recorded a new interpretation of Andersson's songs, which received a Grammy award in both Sweden and Denmark, and before that time his poems had been sung by a number of artists, including the Hootenanny Singers, Love Explosion, and Fred Åkerström. Joakim Thåström has also referenced Andersson in a number of his songs. In 1988, at the centenary of Andersson's birth, Posten, the Swedish postal service, published two stamps in his honour. In Ludvika, a Dan Andersson week is celebrated the first week of every August. In Ludvika there is also a Dan Andersson museum and a statue of him. A bust is also to be found at Järntorget in Gothenburg.
