Eva Neander | |
---|---|
Born | Jukkasjärvi, Sweden | 3 April 1921
Died | 22 February 1950 Tiveden, Vaasa, Gothenburg, Sweden | (aged 28)
Resting place | Finnerödja Cemetery |
Occupation | Journalist, author and poet |
Nationality | Swedish |
Education | University of Gothenburg, Uppsala University |
Period | 1940s |
Eva Lydia Carolina Neander (3 April 1921, in Jukkasjärvi – 22 February 1950, in Tiveden) was a Swedish journalist as well as being one of the most eminent authors and poets of the 1940s. [1] On 22 February 1950, she disappeared and was found dead, frozen in ice in Lake Unden. [2]
Neander grew up on the small island of Mellan Holmen in Härnösand. [3] Neander's mother was Emilia Karolina Neader née Svanberg [4] and her father was school inspector and statistician Ernst Albin Neander. [1] Her father died when she was six years old. [3] Several years later her mother remarried, becoming Emilia Neander-Nyström and the family moved to Borås in 1932 [1] Neander lived in Borås until 1939 when the family moved to Gothenburg. [3] In 1941, received her school-leaving certificate (Gymnasieexamen) in Gothenburg. [1]
Eva Neander never married. [4]
In the winter of 1949, traveling alone, she visited her old house in Finnerödja. [2] On 22 February 1950, [1] she disappeared and was subsequently found dead by her brother and brother-in-law, frozen in ice in Lake Unden. [2]
After a study period at the University of Gothenburg and later Uppsala University that proved unsuccessful, Neander began her career at the Gothenburg non-fiction book reviewer Ny Tid, on the 2 February 1943, [4] followed by a position at social democratic newspaper Västgöta-Demokraten in Borås, where she worked as a proofreader. [5] It was at Västgöta-Demokraten that Neander began her writing career, writing poems, published under the name Eva-Caisa Neander [2] as well as film reviews and short-stories [5] under the name Tonia. [2] In 1945, Neander's story titled: Vilse, won a short story competition at Åhlén & Åkerlund publishers. [5] This was followed new position in 1946 at weekly magazine Vecko-Journalen. [4]
In the same year, Neander expanded her short story Vilse, into a debut novel, Dimman (The Fog). [5] It is her only novel. [4] The novel, whilst dark and angst-ridden, [4] is in the form of episodic prose poetry story, written in short and simple sentences [2] about a sensitive, thin-skinned and clumsy young girl named Bitte, who is desperate for intimacy but shies away from it. [5] As Bitte grows up, it brings her only new challenges. She seems to be separated from the rest of the world by a fog, which is both frightening and protective, and gradually Bitte finally sinks into it. [1]
In 1947, Eva Neander's poetry collection, Död idyll, was published. The collection channels the influence of Swedish poet and novelist Karin Boye [5] who in many ways was Neander's predecessor. [5] That was followed by two collections of short stories: Staden and Nattljus. In Staden, the environment where the stories characters exist is based on Härnösand, where Neander grew up as a child. [4] In Nattljus, the focus is on unhappy marriage. [5] The writer’s second novel, Vattnet (The Water) which was unfinished when she died, [5] is the only work by the writer in which the main character is a strong independent woman who wants to live and does not want to give up in the face of difficulties. [2]
Her work was known outside of Sweden during her lifetime. [6]
After Neander’s death, she was largely forgotten as was her work. [1] However, in the 2000s, Neander's writings were rediscovered and republished by the small publishers Eolit, Rosenlarv and Vendels förlag. [1] [7]
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