Bjorkman, Edwin, 1866-1951

Edwin Bjorkman (1866-1951) was a Swedish-American literary critic, translator, newspaperman, and author, and, from 1925, a resident of North Carolina. Bjorkman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of Anders August Bjorkman and Johanna Elizabeth Anderson Bjorkman. He was educated at South-End Higher Latin School, Stockholm, and was a clerk, actor, and journalist in Sweden before coming to the United States. He was founder of the Swedish Wholesale Clerks' Association.

Upon arriving in New York City in 1891, Bjorkman traveled to Chicago where he worked briefly for a Swedish language newspaper before joining the Scandinavian colony in Minnesota. He edited the Swedish Minnesota Posten, 1892-1894. When the recession of 1893 doomed that paper financially, Bjorkman was persuaded by a friend to try writing in English. An article he submitted was accepted by the Minneapolis Times, and he went on to become a reporter and music critic for the paper, 1894-1897. In 1897, he went east to work as a reporter on the New York Sun and Times . He served in the 23rd Regiment, New York Militia, during the Spanish-American War, 1898. In 1906, he joined the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post, and was department editor for the World's Work in 1909. in September 1910, he was in West Becket, Mass., looking for a position with a university. As editor of the Modern Drama Series, 1912-1925, Bjorkman introduced August Strindberg, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, and Arthur Schnitzler to an American audience. In 1914-1915, he studied abroad as a scholar under the auspices of the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

During World War I, Bjorkman served as representative of the British Department of Information in Sweden, 1915-1917, and was decorated for his service by the Danish government. In 1918-1919, he was director of the Scandinavian bureau of the American Committee on Public Information. From 1920 to 1922, Bjorkman was associate director of the League of Nations News Bureau. In 1925, he was in Waynesville, N.C., apparently recovering from an illness and the loss of his eyesight. From 1926 to 1929, he was literary editor of the Asheville (N.C.) Times . In 1935, he became the state director of the North Carolina Federal Writers' Project.

Among Bjorkman's works are: Is There Anything New Under the Sun? (1911); Gleams: A Fragmentary Interpretation of Man and His World (1912); Voices of Tomorrow (1913); Scandinavia and the War (1914); The Cry of Ukraine (1915); The Soul of a Child (1922); Gates of Life (1923); The Search for Atlantis (1927); and The Wings of Azrael (1934). Bjorkman's two novels are largely autobiographical. About Scandinavia he wrote: Sweden's Position in the War ; What it means to be a Small Neutral ; and What is the Matter with Sweden? He also translated works by Gustaf af Geijerstam, Frank Heller, Harry Soiberg, Olav Dunn, Georg Brandes, August Strindberg, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, Hjalmar Bergstrom, and Arthur Schnitzler.

In 1892, Bjorkman married Rosa Odquist, a 21-year-old immigrant from Goteborg, Sweden. Bjorkman's only know child, Frances Elizabeth, was born to the couple a year later. His wife and daughter did not accompany him to New York City in 1897, and in 1899, Rosa was granted a divorce and given custody of Frances. Bjorkman's daughter died of pneumonia at the age of 37.

In 1906, Bjorkman married Frances Maule of Denver, Colo., a well-known newspaperwoman who became a prominent spokesperson for the women's suffragist movement. In 1907, the Bjorkmans joined the Helicon Home Colony, a utopian community in New Jersey founded by author Upton Sinclair. They lost all of their belongings when the colony was destroyed by fire after only four months' existence.

As of June 1920, Edwin and Frances were still living together on Fifth Avenue in New York, N.Y., but they apparently divorced soon thereafter. In 1923, his wife was Virginia MacFadyen. In 1930, he married Ellie Mae Pratt, who was 33 years his junior. Ellie Mae committed suicide in her hotel room in Nice, France, in 1932, while traveling in the employ of Harper's Bazaar. In 1934, he married his long-time assistant, Lucy Millender of Asheville, N.C.

From the guide to the Edwin Bjorkman Papers, ., 1855-1954, (bulk 1907-1954), (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)