Harald Kidde

Harald Henrik Sager Kidde (14 August 1878 in Vejle – 23 November 1918 in Copenhagen) was a Danish writer and brother of the politician Aage Kidde. He is best known for the novel Helten (The Hero), which is one of the key novels in Danish literature. Kidde died of Spanish Flu in 1918. Only 40 years old. There is an extensive Kidde-archive at Vejle Town Archive.

Harald Kidde was born as the eldest son of road and waterways inspector in Vejle County Chresten Henriksen Kidde (1818–1894) and his wife Inger Dorothea "Doris" Cornelius (1848–1931). In his childhood he read the Danish author J. P. Jacobsen and German romantic poetry, which profoundly influenced his perspective on the world. He graduated from Vejle Højere Almenskole in 1898 and took the mandatory preliminary course in philosophy for entering the university in 1899 after which he began studying theology at the University of Copenhagen. But influenced by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard he could not come to terms with what he saw as the Lutheran church's thoroughly inadequte explanations of the inherent contradictions in the Bible. Even so a self-sacrificing Christian life remained his ideal for the rest of his life.

Soon his name popped up as the signature below articles and short stories in various magazines, and he debuted with Sindbilleder (images of the mind) a small collection of atmospheric images and parables in the late summer of 1900. Edvard Brandes, editor of the leading newspaper Politiken, called the book "a stylish debut". The young critic and poet Christian Rimestad admired the book and became a close friend of Harald, but far from all the critics understood him and many called his poetry sickly, effeminate and perverted.

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