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Enquist presenting himself at the Gothenburg bookfair in 2012.

Per Olov Enquist, also known as P. O. Enquist, (23 September 1934 – 25 April 2020)<ref name="svtobit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was a Swedish author.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He had worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist.

BiographyEdit

Enquist was born and raised in Hjoggböle, a village in present-day Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten. He was the only son of a single mother, who became a widow when he was half a year old. In his youth, he was a promising athlete with a high jump personal best of 1.97 meters.<ref name="ExpressenObituary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He studied at Uppsala University, receiving a degree in the history of literature.<ref name="SvDObituary">Template:Cite news</ref>

During his time in Uppsala he started writing, his first novel Kristallögat being published in 1961, and became a newspaper journalist.<ref name="ExpressenObituary" /> Enquist won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1968 for The Legionnaires, his account of Sweden's deportation of Baltic-country soldiers at the end of the second world war, a novel which also became his international breakthrough.<ref name="ExpressenObituary" /><ref name="AftonbladetObituary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Enquist was to write several more novels based on true events. Kapten Nemos bibliotek (1991) took inspiration from Template:Interlanguage link where two newly born boys were accidentally switched; The Visit of the Royal Physician (1999) was based on the life of Danish King Christian VII and his physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, and Struensee's political machinations and relationship with the King's wife Caroline Matilda in the 1770s; Lewis resa (2001) covered the life of Pentecostalist Lewi Pethrus; while Boken om Blanche och Marie (2004) was based on the friendship of Marie Curie and mental patient Marie "Blanche" Wittman.<ref name="Nationalencyklopedin" /><ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Enquist's first stage play was Tribadernas natt (1975), a story about Swedish author August Strindberg, his soon-to-be ex-wife Siri von Essen, and von Essen's presumed lover Template:Interlanguage link.<ref name="Norstedts" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards for his writing have included the Dobloug Prize in 1988,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Selma Lagerlöf Prize in 1997,<ref name="Norstedts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Italian Flaiano Prize in 2002.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Besides books and stage plays, Enquist also wrote screenplays for motion pictures, including Pelle Erövraren (1987) and Hamsun (1996),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and at the 27th Guldbagge Awards in 1993, Enquist was nominated for the award for Best Screenplay for the film Il Capitano: A Swedish Requiem.<ref name="27thGuldbagge">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the Nelly Sachs Prize in 2003 for The Visit of the Royal Physician.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Visit of the Royal Physician also became the first of two books by Enquist to be awarded the August Prize, the other being his 2008 autobiography Ett annat liv.<ref name="SvDObituary" /> Enquist was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2009 and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize in 2010.<ref name="ExpressenObituary" />

Enquist died on 25 April 2020 after a prolonged struggle with cancer.<ref name="dnobit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

BibliographyEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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