Nils Ferlin

Statue of Nils Ferlin in Stockholm

 Nils Johan Einar Ferlin (help·info) (December 11, 1898 - October 21, 1961) was a Swedish poet.

Nils Ferlin was born in Karlstad, Värmland, where his father worked at the Nya Wermlands-Tidningen newspaper. In 1908 the family moved to Filipstad and Nils' father started his own paper. Unfortunately his father died one year later and the family was forced to move from their adequate residence to more simple living conditions in the industry district, to maintain Ferlin's education at his school, from which he graduated at the age of sixteen.

Ferlin also had a minor career as an actor and debuted at the age of seventeen in Salomé by Oscar Wilde and continued his career with a travelling theatre ensemble.

Although many of Ferlin's poems are melancholic, some also contain humour. Several of them have been set to music and went on to become popular songs - such as Valsmelodi, an attack on the music industry. He was and remains extremely popular with the public and sold over 300,000 copies of his poetry collections during his lifetime. Part of Ferlin's appeal can be perhaps attributed to his "dating" - the Stockholm city centre before the big urban renewal - and his association with the popular culture that flourished there at that time.

Several statues of Nils Ferlin have been erected in Sweden: one in Filipstad of him sitting on a park bench, one in the Karlstad city square of him standing on a table, and one near Klara kyrka in Stockholm of him lighting a cigarette.

Bibliography

Free translation of titles in italics.

• En döddansares visor (1930) (Songs of a death dancer)
• Barfotabarn (1933) (Bare-foot Children)
• Goggles (1938)
• Med många kulörta lyktor (1944) (With Many vivid Lanterns)
• Kejsarens papegoja (1951) (The Emperor's Parrot)
• Från mitt ekorrhjul (1957) (From my Squirrel-wheel)

Translations

• LP: Swedish Songs - Fred Lane (1975) Sweden
• With Plenty Of Colored Lanterns - Thord Fredenholm (1986) Sweden

References

External links

• Nils Ferlin at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Ferlin, Nils
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 11, 1898
Place of birth	Karlstad
Date of death	October 21, 1961
Place of death