Born in Jan 22, 1849 Stockholm, August Strindberg was the third child among seven children of shipping merchants. He grew up in a comfortable middle-class home. Though, his autobiographies shroud this part of his childhood. His father married their house servant Emilia Pettersson after Strindberg’s mother, a former servant, died of tuberculosis.

Strindberg attended the University of Uppsala where he studied aesthetics and modern languages. In 1869, he joined the actor training program at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm and appeared in several small roles. In the same year, he also wrote his first play, A Name Day Gift.

He worked as an editor of Swedish Insurance News. The following year in 1874, He worked as an assistant librarian at the Royal Library. Around that time, he met Siri Wrangel, the wife of an officer, and became entangled in a love affair, traced with several love letters published in a book, which ended with Siri divorcing her husband.  Strindberg married Siri von Essen (Siri Wrangel) in 1877 December 30 and had his first child in 1880. His first autobiography, The Son of a Servant Woman was published in 1886.  He would go on to have 3 children with Siri.

In 1887, Strindberg and his wife decide to separate; he then moved to Denmark and then to went on to live in many European cities. In 1888, he founded the short-lived Intimate Theatre -which later was remodeled as the Scandinavian Experimental Theatre- in Copenhagen, which was inspired by Antoine’s Théâtre Libre. He wrote his last play, The Great Highway in 1909. On May 14, 1912, August Strindberg died in Stockholm of stomach cancer.

Strindberg was a contemporary of Henrik Ibsen who bought a portrait of Strindberg and hang it in his writing room. Ibsen remarked “He is my mortal enemy, and shall hang there and watch as I write”.

 

Citation

(concerning all material presented on this website)

Stenport, Anna Westerståhl & Szalczer, Eszter. “Strindberg and Radicalism—Strindberg and the Avant-garde: A Hundred-Year Legacy.” Scandinavian Studies, vol. 84 no. 3, 2012, pp. 235-247.

Prideaux, Sue. Strindberg: A Life. Yale University Press, 2014.

Szalczer, Eszter. August Strindberg. Taylor and Francis, 2012.

Szalczer, Eszter. “Nature’s Dream Play: Modes of Vision and August Strindberg’s Re-Definition of the Theatre.” Theatre Journal 53.1 (2001) 33-52

Innes, Christopher. “Strindberg’s Radical Aesthetics.” Scandinavian Studies, vol. 84, no. 3, 2012, pp. 359–372. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41955649.