Josef Kjellgren
Josef Kjellgren, was a Swedish writer and playwright.Biography
Kjellgren was born and grew up on the island of Mörkö in the Stockholm archipelago. Later, his family moved to a residence near Hornstull on Södermalm in Stockholm.
Kjellgren was a proletarian writer and a member of the influential modernist literary group Fem unga who published an anthology of the same name in 1929.
Kjellgren's main theme was proletarian internationalism and solidarity within the working class. He published modernist proletarian poetry and books about his travels in Europe in the early 1930s, such as På snålskjuts genom Europa. He was a journalist and editor of the magazine Kulturfront from 1942-1944.
Kjellgren is best known for his later novels, including Människor kring en bro, about the building of Västerbron in Stockholm, and Smaragden. Kjellgren also wrote a play, Okänd svensk soldat, which was the basis for the 1948 movie Främmande hamn, directed by Hampe Faustman.
Kjellgren died of tuberculosis in 1948 and was buried at Högalids kolumbarium in Stockholm.
