Sven Lidman

Carl Hindrik Sven Rudolphsson Lidman —military officer, poet, writer, and preacher, grandson of the priest Sven Lidman—was born in Karlskrona, became a sublieutenant in the Swedish royal army reserve in 1903, and studied law at Uppsala University. He then began a promising career as a celebrated poet with Pasiphaë (1904), Primavera (1905), Källorna (1906), and Elden och altaret (1907). He also wrote the dramas Imperia (1907) and Härskare (1908), before starting to write novels: Stensborg (1910), Thure Gabriel Silfverstååhl (1910), Carl Silfverstååhls upplevelser, Köpmän och krigare, Tvedräktens barn (1913), and Det levande fäderneshuset (1916). In 1917 he went through a religious revival, which came out in his novels Huset med de gamla fröknarna, Såsom genom eld, Bryggan håller (1923), and Personlig frälsning (1924). In 1921 he joined the fast-growing Swedish Pentecostal movement, became the editor of its magazine Evangelii Härold, and was considered the movement's second-leading person next to founder Lewi Pethrus.