Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

‘There is no everyday reality. There is not a moment that is not unique, manyfaceted, full of what has happened, of expectations and apprehensions, of hidden connections with the surrounding world, not a moment that is not hard to penetrate and worthy of attention,’ wrote Solveig von Schoultz (1907–1996) in her short autobiographical book Längs vattenbrynet (‘Along the water’s edge’, 1992).

Solveig von Schoultz, who wrote in Swedish, was one of Scandinavia’s most widely appreciated poets and prose-writers, with more than 30 volumes to her name, including collections of poetry, short stories, other prose works and plays for radio, television and the stage. Earlier in the autumn what was to be her last collection of poems, Molnsommar (‘Cloud summer’), had been published. It received a glowing reception in Finland and Sweden.

Her last poems resembled their author: they were both youthful and timeless, strongly and defiantly anchored in the present. She belonged to the second generation of Finland-Swedish modernists and during the passage of the years developed an ever more strongly marked personal voice. von Schoultz often began from the everyday and the concrete and from a banal or humorous detail could open a door on the universal and universally valid.

Solveig von Schoultz has been translated into twelve languages.·A selection of her poetry and prose was published in 1989 in the volumes Snow and Summers and Heartwork respectively.