Stig Dagerman (1923–1954) was regarded as the most talented young writer of the Swedish postwar generation. Among the many books he wrote in his tragically brief life are his classics, German Autumn (Minnesota, 2011) and Island of the Doomed (Minnesota, 2012).

• ContentsIntroductionPer Olov EnquistA Burnt ChildBlowing Out a Candle A Letter in February from Himself to HimselfPrelude to a DreamA Letter in March from Himself to HimselfEvening PromenadesA Letter in April from Himself to HimselfTea for Four or FiveA Letter in May from Himself to HimselfUnderwater FootprintsA Letter to a Girl at SummerA Twilight MeetingA Letter to an Island in AutumnA Tiger and a GazelleA Letter to the Father from the SonThree o’ClockA Torn-up Suicide NoteWhen the Desert Blooms

"A writer of uncommon urgency and power." -Siri Hustvedt"Dagerman wrote with beautiful objectivity. Instead of emotive phrases, he uses a choice of facts, like bricks, to construct an emotion." -Graham Greene"There are some writers (Kafka and Lorca immediately spring to mind) who come to enjoy the status of saint; their lives and deaths constitute statements about existence and its proper priorities, and the words left behind are continually transfigured by our knowledge of them, indeed acquire on this account a kind of talismanic power. A saint of this type, particularly for his compatriots, is the Swedish writer Stig Dagerman." -Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement

Stig Dagerman (1923–1954) was regarded as the most talented young writer of the Swedish postwar generation. Among the many books he wrote in his tragically brief life are his classics, German Autumn (Minnesota, 2011) and Island of the Doomed (Minnesota, 2012).

• ContentsIntroductionPer Olov EnquistA Burnt ChildBlowing Out a Candle A Letter in February from Himself to HimselfPrelude to a DreamA Letter in March from Himself to HimselfEvening PromenadesA Letter in April from Himself to HimselfTea for Four or FiveA Letter in May from Himself to HimselfUnderwater FootprintsA Letter to a Girl at SummerA Twilight MeetingA Letter to an Island in AutumnA Tiger and a GazelleA Letter to the Father from the SonThree o’ClockA Torn-up Suicide NoteWhen the Desert Blooms

"A writer of uncommon urgency and power." -Siri Hustvedt"Dagerman wrote with beautiful objectivity. Instead of emotive phrases, he uses a choice of facts, like bricks, to construct an emotion." -Graham Greene"There are some writers (Kafka and Lorca immediately spring to mind) who come to enjoy the status of saint; their lives and deaths constitute statements about existence and its proper priorities, and the words left behind are continually transfigured by our knowledge of them, indeed acquire on this account a kind of talismanic power. A saint of this type, particularly for his compatriots, is the Swedish writer Stig Dagerman." -Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement

Stig Dagerman (1923–1954) was regarded as the most talented young writer of the Swedish postwar generation. Among the many books he wrote in his tragically brief life are his classics, German Autumn (Minnesota, 2011) and Island of the Doomed (Minnesota, 2012).

• ContentsIntroductionPer Olov EnquistA Burnt ChildBlowing Out a Candle A Letter in February from Himself to HimselfPrelude to a DreamA Letter in March from Himself to HimselfEvening PromenadesA Letter in April from Himself to HimselfTea for Four or FiveA Letter in May from Himself to HimselfUnderwater FootprintsA Letter to a Girl at SummerA Twilight MeetingA Letter to an Island in AutumnA Tiger and a GazelleA Letter to the Father from the SonThree o’ClockA Torn-up Suicide NoteWhen the Desert Blooms

"A writer of uncommon urgency and power." -Siri Hustvedt"Dagerman wrote with beautiful objectivity. Instead of emotive phrases, he uses a choice of facts, like bricks, to construct an emotion." -Graham Greene"There are some writers (Kafka and Lorca immediately spring to mind) who come to enjoy the status of saint; their lives and deaths constitute statements about existence and its proper priorities, and the words left behind are continually transfigured by our knowledge of them, indeed acquire on this account a kind of talismanic power. A saint of this type, particularly for his compatriots, is the Swedish writer Stig Dagerman." -Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement