Gunnar Harding Explained

Gunnar Harding
Birth Date:	11 June 1940
Birth Place:	Sundsvall, Sweden
Nationality:	Swedish
Occupation:	Poet, novelist, essayist and translator
Awards:	Dobloug Prize (2011)

Karl Gunnar Harding (born 11 June 1940) is a Swedish poet, novelist, essayist and translator, considered 'one of Sweden's foremost poets'.^[1] Among his other poetry collections is Starnberger See from 1977. Among his novels is Luffaren Svarta Hästen from 1977. He published the children's book Mannen och paraplyet in 1990.^[2] He was awarded the Dobloug Prize in 2011.^[3]

Biography

Gunnar Harding was born in Sundsvall and brought up in Bromma as the son of the doctor Gösta Harding. He studied painting in Stockholm and was a jazz musician before making his literary debut in 1967 with Lokomotivet som frös fast. During his early career, Harding travelled extensively in America, and this influenced his work.^[4]

Harding is noted primarily for his poetry (mostly in free verse but also significant prose-poetry). Alongside this, he has written essays, a book about the origins of jazz called Kreol, and a few stories.^[5]

He has also worked as an editor, for Lyrikvännen ('poetry-lover') 1971–1974, for Artes for many years, and for Artes International during its five-year run.^[6] He has been a member of the Samfundet De Nio (chair number 5) since 1993^[7] and served on the 1973 Swedish Bible committion 1981–1989.^[8]

Harding's literary significance is partly as an introducer of foreign modernism, especially French, American and British poetry, into Swedish literature.

Harding also takes a lively interest in jazz and likes to read his poetry with jazz as background music.

Bibliography

Literary writing

• 1967 – Lokomotivet som frös fast
• 1968 – Den svenske cyklistens sång
• 1969 – Blommor till James Dean
• 1970 – Örnen har landat
• 1971 – Guillaume Apollinaires fantastiska liv
• 1972 – Skallgång
• 1974 – Poesi 1967–1973
• 1975 – Ballader
• 1977 – Starnberger See
• 1977 – Luffaren Svarta Hästen och det hemska rånmordet i Leksand
• 1978 – Bilddikt, with Olle Kåks
• 1978 – Den trådlösa fantasin
• 1980 – Tillbaka till dig
• 1983 – Gasljus
• 1987 – Stjärndykaren
• 1989 – Guillaume Apollinaires gåtfulla leende: en ändlös biografi
• 1990 – Mannen och paraplyet, text: Gunnar Harding; pictures: Catharina Günther-Rådström
• 1990 – Mitt vinterland
• 1991 – Kreol
• 1993 – Överallt där vinden finns: dikter i urval 1969–1990
• 1995 – Stora scenen
• 2001 – Tal på Övralid 6 juli 2001
• 2001 – Salongsstycken kring Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• 2003 – Det brinnande barnet
• 2007 – Dikter 1965–2003
• 2009 – Innerstad
• 2012 – Blues for Jimmy ; Nordvästexpressen ; Martin Luther King [from the author's original manuscript of ''Blommor till James Dean''] (Tragus)
• 2013 – Mitt poetiska liv (autobiography)

Translations by Harding into Swedish

• 1966 – 4 poeter, translations from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Anselm Hollo and Lionel Kearns (Bok och Bild)
• 1969 – Amerikansk undergroundpoesi (Wahlström & Widstrand)
• 1970 – Vladimir Majakovskij: För full hals, with Ulf Bergström (Wahlström & Widstrand)
• 1971 – Allen Ginsberg: Tårgas & Solrosor, with Gösta Friberg (FIB:s Lyrikklubb)
• 1976 – Den vrålande parnassen, with Bengt Jangfeldt (rysk avantgardepoesi)
• 1978 – O Paris – Apollinaire och hans epok i poesi, bild och dokument (FIB:s Lyrikklubb/Tiden)
• 1985 – Vladimir Majakovskij: Jag!, with Bengt Jangfeldt
• 1988 – Frank O'Hara: Till minne av mina känslor
• 1989 – Guillaume Apollinaire: Dikter till Lou, pictures by Olle Kåks
• 1995 – Är vi långt från Montmartre? Apollinaire och hans epok i poesi, bild och dokument
• 1997 – En katedral av färgat glas: Shelley, Byron, Keats och deras epok
• 1998 – 3 x New York, interpretations of John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and Ron Padgett
• 2000 – Och drog likt drömmar bort: Coleridge, Wordsworth och deras epok
• 2002 – Där döda murar står: Lord Byron och hans samtida
• 2005 – Beat! (poetry and prose from the beat generation, with Per Planhammar)
• 2006 – Mina Loy: Baedeker för månresenärer
• 2007 – Catullus: Dikter om kärlek och hat, with Tore Janson
• 2012 – John Donne: Skabrösa elegier och heliga sonetter (Ellerströms)

Translations of Harding's work into English

• 1970 – The Fabulous Life of Guillaume Apollinaire, trans. by Sydney Bernard Smith (Iowa City: Windhover, 1970; Dublin: Raven Arts, 1982) [part of ''Guillaume Apollinaires fantastiska liv'']
• 1973 – They Killed Sitting Bull and Other Poems, trans. by Robin Fulton (London: Magazine Editions) [a selection of 25 early poems], repr. with additional translations by Anselm Hollo as Tidewater (Grosse Pointe Farms, MI: Marick Press, 2009)
• 2014 – Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press) [selected poems]

Anthologies

• 1979 – Modern Swedish Poetry in Translation, with Anselm Hollo

Discography

• Jazz och Poesi - Gunnar Harding och Sumpens Swingsters (LP with text volume, 1982)

Prizes and distinctions

• 1975 –
• 1987 – Stipendium ur Lena Vendelfelts minnesfond
• 1988 – Carl Emil Englund-priset för Stjärndykaren
• 1992 – Bellmanpriset
• 1995 – Svenska Dagbladets litteraturpris
• 2000 – Wahlström & Widstrands litteraturpris
• 2001 – Ferlinpriset
• 2001 – Övralidspriset
• 2002 – Letterstedtska priset för översättningar för Och drog likt drömmar bort: Coleridge, Wordsworth och deras epok
• 2004 – Sveriges Radios Lyrikpris
• 2008 – Litteris et Artibus
• 2010 – Karlfeldt-priset
• 2011 – Doblougska priset
• 2013 – Elsa Thulins översättarpris

Notes and References

1. Roger Greenwald, 'Introduction', in Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2014), p. 13.
2. Encyclopedia: Gunnar Harding . . Godal . Anne Marit . Anne Marit Godal . Norsk nettleksikon . Oslo . no. 24 July 2012.
3. Encyclopedia: Doblougprisen . . Godal . Anne Marit . Anne Marit Godal . Norsk nettleksikon . Oslo . no. 24 July 2012.
4. Roger Greenwald, 'Introduction', in Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2014), p. 13.
5. Roger Greenwald, 'Introduction', in Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2014), p. 13.
6. Roger Greenwald, 'Introduction', in Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2014), p. 13.
7. url=http://www.samfundetdenio.se/pdf/Harding.pd.
8. Roger Greenwald, 'Introduction', in Gunnar Harding, Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding, ed. and trans. by Roger Greenwald (Boston, MA: Black Widow Press, 2014), p. 13.