Moa Martinson
| Moa Martinson | |
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Moa Martinson in 1957
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| Born | Helga Maria Swarts 2 November 1890 Vårdnäs, Sweden |
| Died | 5 August 1964 (aged 73) Sorunda, Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Notable works |
Women and apple trees My Mother Gets Married |
| Notable awards | The Nine Society's Grand Prize |
| Spouses |
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Moa Martinson, born Helga Maria Swarts sometimes spelt Swartz, (2 November 1890 – 5 August 1964) was one of Sweden's most noted authors of proletarian literature. Her ambition was to change society with her authorship and to portray the conditions of the working class, an also the personal development of women. Her works were about motherhood, love, poverty, politics, religion, urbanization and the hard living conditions of the working-class woman.
Martinson was born on 2 November 1890 in Vårdnäs, Linköping Municipality. Her mother was Kristina Swartz (sometimes spelt Christina Schwartz) who served as a maid wherever jobs were available. There are no legal records stating who her father was, but according to researchers Annika Johansson and Bonnie Festin, he was probably Anders Teodor Andersson, a farmhand who served at the Kärr farm in Motala at the same time as Swartz. Since she carried, what in those days was referred to as an illegitimate child, she had to go to her parents home for the birth. Swartz' father, Nils Peter Swartz, was a poor soldier who lived with his wife, Carin Olofsdotter, in a derelict croft in Vårdnäs. On 17 February 1891, Swartz sued Andersson for child support at the Motala district court, where two witnesses testified that they had seen her and Andersson in the same bed around the time the child would have been conceived. Andersson failed to appear in court in February as well as on the two following hearings. Swartz finally said that he had gone to America and the proceedings were stayed.
The identity of her father was unknown to Martinson her entire life, but her speculations about who it could be were an inspiration for her work. In her book Pigmamma ("Maid Mother") she portrays her mother's situation, pregnant with a married man's child. At one point she thought that her father was a married man, whom her mother had worked for. Her romantic view of her mysterious father decreased as time went by. In her book Mor gifter sig (My Mother Gets Married), written twelve years later, it became clear how much Martinson despised her absent father. In Fjäderbrevet (The Feather Letter), written another six years later, there is no mentioning of him at all.
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