Almqvist, Carl Jonas Love

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Almqvist, Carl Jonas Love

Almqvist, Carl Jonas Love, Swedish novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, poet, and composer; b. Stockholm, Nov. 28, 1793; d. Bremen, Nov. 26, 1866. He was educated at the Univ. of Uppsala. After being employed in the dept. of ecclesiastical affairs in Stockholm, he joined friends in western Sweden in setting up an experimental community à la Rousseau in 1823. Following his return to Stockholm, he served as rector of an experimental secondary school from 1829 to 1841. In 1837 he was ordained in the Lutheran church, but his radical views on moral and social reform were not welcome. After being accused of fraud and attempted murder of a moneylender, he fled to the U.S. in 1851. In 1865 he returned to Europe. In addition to his large literary output, Almqvist publ. a collection of songs to his own texts (c. 1830) and a collection of piano pieces as Fria Fantasier (1847–49).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire