Editing August Strindberg (section)

==Biography==

===Youth===
[[File:Klara skola.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The school in [[Klara (Stockholm)|Klara, Stockholm]], whose harsh discipline haunted Strindberg in his adult life]]

Strindberg was born on 22 January 1849 in Stockholm, Sweden, the third surviving son of Carl Oscar Strindberg ([[Shipping agency|a shipping agent]]) and Eleonora Ulrika Norling (a serving-maid).<ref>Meyer (1985, 3–4). In his autobiographical novel, ''[[The Son of a Servant]]'' (1886), Strindberg described his father as "an aristocrat by birth and upbringing"; quoted by Meyer (1985, 8). When Johan August was four his father was declared bankrupt; see Meyer (1985, 7). He had two elder brothers, Carl Axel and Oscar, who were born before their parents were married. After Johan August came another brother, Olle, and three sisters, Anna, Elisabeth, and Nora; see Meyer (1988, 3, 7).</ref> In his autobiographical novel ''[[The Son of a Servant]]'', Strindberg describes a childhood affected by "emotional insecurity, poverty, religious fanaticism and neglect".<ref>Merriam-Webster (1995, 1074–5). One of his biographers, [[Olof Lagercrantz]], warns against the use of ''[[The Son of a Servant]]'' as a biographical source. Lagercrantz notes Strindberg's "talent to make us believe what he wants us to believe" and his unwillingness to accept any characterization of his person other than his own (1984).</ref> When he was seven, the family moved to Norrtullsgatan on the northern, almost-rural, periphery of the city.<ref>Meyer (1985, 9–10). Norrtullsgatan is not far from [[Tegnérlunden]], the park where [[Carl Eldh]]'s grand statue of Strindberg was later placed.</ref> A year later they moved near Sabbatsberg, where they stayed for three years before returning to Norrtullsgatan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strindbergsmuseet.se/stockholm3.html |title=Norrmalm |last=Höök |first=Erik |access-date=16 February 2017 |website=[[Strindberg Museum]] |language=sv |quote=Strindberg bodde större delen av sin uppväxt i olika malmgårdar nära Norrtull. Längs bodde man på Norrtullsgatan 14, där [[Norrtulls sjukhus]] nu ligger. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501171521/http://www.strindbergsmuseet.se/stockholm3.html |archive-date=1 May 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 11).</ref> He attended a harsh school in Klara for four years, an experience that haunted him in his adult life.<ref>Meyer (1985, 10).</ref> He was moved to the school in Jakob in 1860, which he found far more pleasant, though he remained there for only a year.<ref>Meyer (1985, 11–13).</ref> In the autumn of 1861, he was moved to the [[Stockholms Lyceum|Stockholm Lyceum]], a progressive private school for middle-class boys, where he remained for six years.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 13">Meyer (1985, 13).</ref> As a child he had a keen interest in natural science, photography, and religion (following his mother's [[Pietism]]).<ref>Meyer (1985, 12–13).</ref> His mother, Strindberg recalled later with bitterness, always resented her son's intelligence.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 13"/> She died when he was 13, and although his grief lasted for only three months, in later life he came to feel a sense of loss and longing for an idealized maternal figure.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 15">Meyer (1985, 13–15).</ref> Less than a year after her death, his father married the children's [[governess]], Emilia Charlotta Pettersson.<ref>Meyer (1985, 15). Together they had a son, Emil, who was born in the year after their marriage.</ref> According to his sisters, Strindberg came to regard them as his worst enemies.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 15"/> He passed his [[Studentexamen|graduation examination]] in May 1867 and enrolled at the [[Uppsala University]], where he began on 13 September.<ref>Meyer (1985, 18–19).</ref>

Strindberg spent the next few years in [[Uppsala]] and Stockholm, alternately studying for examinations and trying his hand at non-academic pursuits. As a young student, Strindberg also worked as an assistant in a pharmacy in the university town of [[Lund]] in southern Sweden. He supported himself in between studies as a substitute primary-school teacher and as a tutor for the children of two well-known physicians in Stockholm.<ref name=Adams_2002>Adams (2002)<!-- missing page numbers for citations -->.</ref> He first left Uppsala in 1868 to work as a schoolteacher, but then studied chemistry for some time at the [[Royal Institute of Technology|Institute of Technology]] in Stockholm in preparation for medical studies, later working as a private tutor before becoming an extra at the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]] in Stockholm. In May 1869, he failed his qualifying chemistry examination which in turn made him uninterested in schooling.

===1870s===
Strindberg returned to [[Uppsala University]] in January 1870 to study aesthetics and modern languages and to work on a number of plays.<ref>Meyer (1985), 30.</ref> It was at this time that he first learnt about the ideas of [[Charles Darwin]].<ref>Meyer (1985), 30–2.</ref> He co-founded the Rune Society, a small literary club whose members adopted pseudonyms taken from [[Runic alphabet|runes]] of the ancient [[Teutons|Teutonic]] alphabet – Strindberg called himself [[Freyr|Frö]] (Seed), after the god of fertility.<ref>Meyer (1985, 31). The membership was restricted to a maximum of nine.</ref> After abandoning a draft of a play about [[Eric XIV of Sweden]] halfway through in the face of criticism from the Rune Society, on 30 March he completed a one-act comedy in verse called ''In Rome'' about [[Bertel Thorvaldsen]], which he had begun the previous autumn.<ref>Meyer (1985), 31–2.</ref> The play was accepted by the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]], where it premièred on 13 September 1870.<ref>Meyer (1985), 32.</ref><ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii">Robinson (2009), xvii.</ref> As he watched it performed, he realised that it was not good and felt like drowning himself, though the reviews published the following day were generally favourable.<ref>Meyer (1985, 32–4).</ref> That year he also first read works of [[Søren Kierkegaard]] and [[Georg Brandes]], both of whom influenced him.<ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii" /><ref>Meyer (1985), 34–5.</ref>

[[File:AStrindberg1874.jpeg|thumb|left|200px|Portrait of Strindberg in 1874, age 25]]
Taking his cue from [[William Shakespeare]], he began to use colloquial and realistic speech in his historical dramas, which challenged the convention that they should be written in stately verse.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} During the Christmas holiday of 1870–71, he rewrote a historical tragedy, ''Sven the Sacrificer'', as a one-act play in prose called ''[[The Outlaw (play)|The Outlaw]]''.<ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii" /><ref>Meyer (1985), 37.</ref> Depressed by Uppsala, he stayed in Stockholm, returning to the university in April to pass an exam in Latin and in June to defend his thesis on [[Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger]]'s [[Romanticism|Romantic]] [[tragedy]] ''Earl Haakon'' (1802).<ref>Meyer (1985), 38–9.</ref> Following further revision in the summer, ''The Outlaw'' opened at the Royal Theatre on 16 October 1871.<ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii" /><ref>Meyer (1985), 37, 40–1.</ref><ref>''The Outlaw'' was first published in December 1876; see Meyer (1985), 71.</ref> Despite hostile reviews, the play earned him an audience with [[Charles XV of Sweden|King Charles XV]], who supported his studies with a payment of 200 [[Swedish riksdaler|riksdaler]].<ref>Meyer (1985, 41–3). After asking when he could expect the next payment in the spring of 1872, he was informed that it was not a regular arrangement, but was sent one further payment.</ref> Towards the end of the year Strindberg completed a first draft of his first major work, a play about [[Olaus Petri]] called ''[[Master Olof]]''.<ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii" /><ref>Meyer (1985), 43.</ref> In September 1872, the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]] rejected it, leading to decades of rewrites, bitterness, and a contempt for official institutions.<ref>Merriam-Webster (1995), 1074–5.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 49).</ref> Returning to the university for what would be his final term in the spring, he left on 2&nbsp;March 1872, without graduating.<ref>Meyer (1985, 43–4).</ref> In ''Town and Gown'' (1877), a collection of short stories describing student life, he ridiculed Uppsala and its professors.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 73.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985), 70.</ref><ref>Robinson (2009, xviii). Meyer gives the collection's date of publication as December 1876, while Lagercrantz and Robinson give it as December 1877.</ref>

Strindberg embarked on his career as a journalist and critic for newspapers in Stockholm.<ref>Meyer (1985, 44).</ref> He was particularly excited at this time by [[Henry Thomas Buckle]]'s ''History of Civilization'' and the first volume of Georg Brandes' ''Main Currents of Nineteenth-Century Literature''.<ref>Meyer (1985, 46–7).</ref> From December 1874, Strindberg worked for eight years as an assistant librarian at the [[National Library of Sweden|Royal Library]].<ref name="Lagercrantz 1984, 49">Lagercrantz (1984), 49.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985), 53. He was accepted for the position despite not possessing the requisite university degree; it is possible that two articles that had been published in ''The Swedish Citizen'' in March 1874, in which he praised the library and its chief librarian, may have prompted his acceptance. After taking several periods of unpaid leave in 1881–82, he finally resigned from the library on 31 August 1882.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985), 92.</ref> That same month, Strindberg offered ''[[Master Olof]]'' to [[Edvard Stjernström]] (the director of the newly built [[Swedish Theatre (Stockholm)|New Theatre]] in Stockholm), but it was rejected.<ref name="Lagercrantz 1984, 49"/> He socialised with writers, painters, journalists, and other librarians; they often met in the Red Room in [[Berns Salonger|Bern's Restaurant]].<ref name = "Robinson 2009 xvii" /><ref>Meyer (1985), 55–6.</ref>

Early in the summer of 1875, he met [[Siri von Essen]], a 24-year-old aspiring actress who, by virtue of her husband, was a [[baron]]ess – he became infatuated with her.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 54–58.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985), 57–60. "All his life, Strindberg, while affecting to despise aristocrats, was unwillingly attracted by them." Strindberg in different works gives both late May and June as the date of their first meeting. Siri had performed as an amateur, but her husband did not want her to become a professional.</ref> Strindberg described himself as a "failed author" at this time: "I feel like a deaf-mute," he wrote, "as I cannot speak and am not permitted to write; sometimes I stand in the middle of my room that seems like a prison cell, and then I want to scream so that walls and ceilings would fly apart, and I have so much to scream about, and therefore I remain silent."<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 57.</ref> As a result of an argument in January 1876 concerning the inheritance of the family firm, Strindberg's relationship with his father was terminated (he did not attend his funeral in February 1883).<ref>Lagercrantz (1984, 60–61) and Meyer (1985, 63, 109).</ref> From the beginning of 1876, Strindberg and Siri began to meet in secret, and that same year Siri and her husband divorced.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 61–3.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 63).</ref> Following a successful audition that December, Siri became an actress at the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]].<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 71.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985), 70–2.</ref> They married a year later, on 30 December 1877;<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 69–70.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 75).</ref> Siri was seven months pregnant at the time. Their first child was born prematurely on 21 January 1878 and died two days later.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 75–7.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 76).</ref> On 9 January 1879, Strindberg was declared bankrupt.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984), 79.</ref><ref>Meyer (1985, 77).</ref> In November 1879, his novel ''[[The Red Room (Strindberg)|The Red Room]]'' was published.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 79">Meyer (1985, 79).</ref> A satire of Stockholm society, it has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel.<ref name = "Meyer 1985, 79"/> While receiving mixed reviews in Sweden, it was acclaimed in Denmark, where Strindberg was hailed as a genius.<ref>Meyer (1985, 79–80).</ref> As a result of ''The Red Room'', he had become famous throughout Scandinavia.<ref>Meyer (1985), 81.</ref><ref>Robinson (2009, xix).</ref> [[Edvard Brandes]] wrote that the novel "makes the reader want to join the fight against hypocrisy and reaction."<ref>Quoted by Meyer (1985, 84).</ref> In his response to Brandes, Strindberg explained that:

{{blockquote |I am a socialist, a nihilist, a republican, anything that is anti-reactionary!... I want to turn everything upside down to see what lies beneath; I believe we are so webbed, so horribly regimented, that no spring-cleaning is possible, everything must be burned, blown to bits, and then we can start afresh...<ref>Letter to [[Edvard Brandes]], 29 July 1880; quoted by Meyer (1985, 85).</ref>}}

===1880s===
[[File:Siri von Essen Sir Bengt's Wife Strindberg 1882.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Strindberg's first wife, [[Siri von Essen]], as Margit in ''Sir Bengt's Wife'' (1882) at the [[Swedish Theatre (Stockholm)|New Theatre]].]]
Strindberg and Siri's daughter Karin was born on 26 February 1880.<ref name="Meyer 1985, 82">Meyer (1985, 82).</ref> Buoyant from the reception of ''[[The Red Room (Strindberg)|The Red Room]]'', Strindberg swiftly completed ''The Secret of the Guild'' ("''Gillets hemlighet''"), an historical drama set in [[Uppsala]] at the beginning of the 15th century about the conflict between two masons over the completion of the city cathedral, which opened at the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]] on 3 May 1880 (his first première in nine years); [[Siri von Essen|Siri]] played the "staunchly loyal" Margaretha.<ref>Meyer (1985, 81–2) and Robinson (2009, xix).</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Frederick J. Marker, Lise-Lone Marker |title=Strindberg and Modernist Theatre: Post-Inferno Drama on the Stage |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=December 2002 |isbn=9780521623773 |publication-date=December 2002 |pages=3 |language=En}}</ref> That spring he formed a friendship with the painter [[Carl Larsson]].<ref name="Meyer 1985, 82"/> A collected edition of all of Strindberg's previous writings was published under the title ''Spring Harvest''.<ref>Meyer (1985, 81, 86). The first two volumes appeared in November and December 1880.</ref> From 1881, at the invitation of [[Edvard Brandes]], Strindberg began to contribute articles to the ''Morgenbladet'', a Copenhagen daily newspaper.<ref>Meyer (1985, 88).</ref> In April he began work on ''The Swedish People'', a four-part cultural history of Sweden written as a series of depictions of ordinary people's lives from the 9th century onwards, which he undertook mainly for financial reasons and which absorbed him for the next year; Larsson provided illustrations.<ref>Meyer (1985, 83, 90–97) and Robinson (2009, xix).</ref> At Strindberg's insistence, Siri resigned from the Royal Theatre in the spring, having become pregnant again.<ref>Meyer (1985, 90).</ref> Their second daughter, Greta, was born on 9 June 1881, while they were staying on the island of [[Kymmendö]].<ref>Meyer (1985, 91).</ref> That month, a collection of essays from the past 10 years, ''Studies in Cultural History'', was published.<ref>Meyer (1985, 91) and Robinson (2009, xix). Meyer translates the title as ''Cultural-Historical Studies''. The collection includes Strindberg's assessment of [[Impressionism]].</ref> [[Ludvig Josephson]] (the new artistic director of Stockholm's [[Swedish Theatre (Stockholm)|New Theatre]]) agreed to stage ''[[Master Olof]]'', eventually opting for the prose version – the five-hour-long production opened on 30 December 1881 under the direction of August Lindberg to favourable reviews.<ref>Meyer (1985, 89, 95) and Robinson (2009, xix). Lane gives the length of the production as six hours. The name of the theatre in Swedish is Nya Teatern. Two former theatres of Stockholm have used this name (one is also known as the [[Swedish Theatre (Stockholm)|Swedish Theatre]], which burnt-down in 1925, while the other, [[Mindre teatern]], was demolished in 1908). August Lindberg took over from Edvard Stjernström, who founded the one known as the Swedish Theatre; see Lane (1998, 1040) and Meyer (1985, 89).</ref> While this production of ''Master Olof'' was his breakthrough in the theatre, Strindberg's five-act [[Fairy tale|fairy-tale]] play ''Lucky Peter's Journey'', which opened on 22 December 1883, brought him his first significant success, although he dismissed it as a [[potboiler]].<ref>Lane (1998, 1040), Meyer (1985, 96), and Robinson (2009, xix).</ref> In March 1882 he wrote in a letter to Josephson: "My interest in the theatre, I must frankly state, has but one focus and one goal – my wife's career as an actress"; Josephson duly cast her in two roles the following season.<ref>Meyer (1985, 96–97).</ref>

Having returned to Kymmendö during the summer of 1882, Strindberg wrote a collection of [[anti-establishment]] short stories, ''The New Kingdom''.<ref>Meyer (1985, 99).</ref> While there, to provide a lead role for his wife and as a reply to [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s ''[[A Doll's House]]'' (1879), he also wrote ''Sir Bengt's Wife'', which opened on 25 November 1882 at the New Theatre.<ref>Meyer (1985, 81, 102) and Robinson (2009, xix–xx).</ref> He moved to [[Grez-sur-Loing]], just south of Paris, France, where Larsson was staying. He then moved to [[Paris]], which they found noisy and polluted. Income earned from ''Lucky Peter's Journey'' enabled him to move to [[Switzerland]] in 1883. He resided in [[Ouchy]], where he stayed for some years. On 3 April 1884, Siri gave birth to their son, Hans.<ref>Meyer (1985, 126) and Robinson (2009, xx).</ref>

[[File:Strindberg's reception in Stockholm 20-10-1884.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Newspaper illustration of Strindberg's reception on his return to Stockholm on 20 October 1884 to face charges of [[blasphemy]] arising from a story in the first volume of his collection ''[[Getting Married (collection)|Getting Married]]''.]]
In 1884 Strindberg wrote a collection of short stories, ''[[Getting Married (collection)|Getting Married]]'', that presented women in an [[egalitarian]] light and for which he was tried for and acquitted of [[blasphemy]] in Sweden.<ref>Meyer (129–141) and Robinson (2009, xx).</ref> Two groups "led by influential members of the upper classes, supported by the right-wing press" probably instigated the prosecution; at the time, most people in Stockholm thought that [[Sophia of Nassau|Queen Sophia]] was behind it.<ref>Meyer (1985, 135).</ref> By the end of that year Strindberg was in a despondent mood: "My view now is," he wrote, "everything is shit. No way out. The skein is too tangled to be unravelled. It can only be sheared. The building is too solid to be pulled down. It can only be blown up."<ref>Quoted by Meyer (1985, 142).</ref> In May 1885 he wrote: "I am on my way to becoming an [[atheist]]."<ref>Meyer (145).</ref> In the wake of the publication of ''Getting Married'', he began to correspond with [[Émile Zola]].<ref>Meyer (1985, 143).</ref> During the summer he completed a sequel volume of stories, though some were quite different in tone from those of the first.<ref>Meyer (1985, 130, 146–147).</ref> Another collection of stories, ''Utopias in Reality'', was published in September 1885, though it was not well received.<ref>Meyer (1985, 147).</ref>

In 1885, they moved back to Paris.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} In September 1887 he began to write a novel in French about his relationship with Siri von Essen called ''[[The Defence of a Fool]]''.<ref>Lagercrantz (1984, 55), Meyer (1985, 178–179), and Schleussner (1912). The title of the novel (''Le Plaidoyer d'un Fou'') has also been translated as ''The Confession of a Fool'', ''A Madman's Defence'' and ''A Fool's Apology''. [https://archive.org/details/cu31924100213770 A public domain English-language translation is available online].</ref> In 1887, they moved to Issigatsbühl, near [[Lindau]] by [[Lake Constance]]. His next play, ''Comrades'' (1886), was his first in a contemporary setting.<ref>Robinson (2009, xxi). The play's original title was ''Marauders''. It received its première on 23 October 1905 at the Lustspieltheater in [[Vienna]].</ref> After the trial he evaluated his religious beliefs, and concluded that he needed to leave [[Lutheranism]], though he had been Lutheran since childhood; and after briefly being a [[deist]], he became an [[atheist]]. He needed a [[credo]] and he used [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] nature worshiping, which he had studied while a student, as one. His works ''[[The People of Hemsö]]'' (1887) and ''Among French Peasants'' (1889) were influenced by his study of Rousseau. He then moved to Germany, where he fell in love with [[Chancellor]] [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s [[Prussia]] status of the officer corps. After that, he grew very critical of Rousseau and turned to [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s philosophies, which emphasized the male intellect. Nietzsche's influence can be seen in ''The Defence of a Fool'' (1893), ''Pariah'' (1889), ''[[Creditors (play)|Creditors]]'' (1889), and ''By the Open Sea'' (1890).

Another change in his life after the trial is that Strindberg decided he wanted a scientific life instead of a literary one, and began to write about non-literary subjects. When he was 37, he began ''[[The Son of a Servant]]'', a four-part autobiography. The first part ends in 1867, the year he left home for Uppsala. Part two describes his youth up to 1872. Part three, or ''The Red Room'', describes his years as a poet and journalist; it ends with his meeting [[Siri von Essen]]. Part four, which dealt with the years from 1877 to 1886, was banned by his publishers and was not published until after his death. The three missing years, 1875–1877, were the time when Strindberg was wooing von Essen and their marriage; entitled ''He and She'', this portion of his autobiography was not printed until 1919, after his death. It contains the love letters between the two during that period.

In the later half of the 1880s Strindberg discovered [[Naturalism (theatre)|Naturalism]]. After completing ''[[The Father (Strindberg)|The Father]]'' in a matter of weeks, he sent a copy to [[Émile Zola]] for his approval, though Zola's reaction was lukewarm. The drama revolves around the conflict between the Captain, a father, husband, and scientist, and his wife, Laura, over the education of their only child, a fourteen-year-old daughter named Berta. Through unscrupulous means, Laura gets the Captain to doubt his fatherhood until he suffers a mental and physical collapse. While writing ''The Father'', Strindberg himself was experiencing marital problems and doubted the paternity of his children. He also suspected that Ibsen had based Hjalmar Ekdal in ''[[The Wild Duck]]'' (1884) on Strindberg because he felt that Ibsen viewed him as a weak and pathetic husband; he reworked the situation of Ibsen's play into a warfare between the two sexes. From November 1887 to April 1889, Strindberg stayed in [[Copenhagen]]. While there he had several opportunities to meet with both [[Georg Brandes]] and his brother [[Edvard Brandes]]. Georg helped him put on ''The Father'', which had its première on 14 November 1887 at the Casino Theatre in Copenhagen.<ref>Meyer (1985, 183) and Robinson (2009, xxi).</ref> It enjoyed a successful run for 11 days after which it toured the Danish provinces.<ref>Meyer (1985, 183–185).</ref>

[[File:MissJulie1906.jpg|thumb|right|300px|First Stockholm production of Strindberg's 1888 [[Naturalism (theatre)|naturalistic]] play ''[[Miss Julie]]'', staged at The People's Theatre in November 1906. Sacha Sjöström (left) as Kristin, Manda Björling as Miss Julie, and August Falck as Jean.]]
Before writing ''[[Creditors (play)|Creditors]]'', Strindberg completed one of his most famous pieces, ''[[Miss Julie]]''. He wrote the play with a Parisian stage in mind, in particular the [[Théâtre Libre]], founded in 1887 by [[André Antoine]]. In the play he used [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[survival of the fittest]] and dramatized a doomed sexual encounter that crosses the division of social classes. It is believed that this play was inspired by the marriage of Strindberg, the son of a servant, to an aristocratic woman.

In the essay ''On Psychic Murder'' (1887), he referred to the psychological theories of the [[Nancy School]], which advocated the use of hypnosis. Strindberg developed a theory that sexual warfare was not motivated by carnal desire but by relentless human will. The winner was the one who had the strongest and most unscrupulous mind, someone who, like a hypnotist, could coerce a more impressionable psyche into submission. His view on psychological power struggles may be seen in works such as ''Creditors'' (1889), ''The Stronger'' (1889), and ''Pariah'' (1889).

In 1888, after a separation and reconciliation with Siri von Essen, he founded the Scandinavian Experimental Theatre in Copenhagen, where Siri became manager. He asked writers to send him scripts, which he received from [[Herman Bang]], [[Gustav Wied]] and Nathalia Larsen. Less than a year later, with the theatre and reconciliation short lived, he moved back to Sweden while Siri moved back to her native [[Finland]] with the children. While there, he rode out the final phase of the divorce and later used this agonizing ordeal for the basis of ''The Bond and the Link'' (1893). Strindberg also became interested in short drama, called Quart d'heure. He was inspired by writers such as Gustave Guiche and Henri de Lavedan. His notable contribution was ''[[The Stronger]]'' (1889). As a result of the failure of the Scandinavian Experimental Theatre, Strindberg did not work as a playwright for three years. In 1889, he published an essay entitled "On Modern Drama and the Modern Theatre", in which he disassociated himself from naturalism, arguing that it was petty and unimaginative realism. His sympathy for Nietzsche's philosophy and atheism in general was also on the wane. He entered the period of his "Inferno crisis", in which he had psychological and religious upheavals that influenced his later works.

August Strindberg's Inferno is his personal account of sinking deeper into some kind of madness, typified by visions and paranoia. In ''Strindberg och alkoholen'' (1985), James Spens discusses Strindberg's drinking habits, including his liking for [[absinthe]] and its possible implications for Strindberg's mental health during the inferno period.

===1890s===
[[File:August Strindberg by Edvard Munch.jpg|thumb|right|[[Edvard Munch]] ''Portrait of August Strindberg'', 1892, [[Moderna Museet|Museum of Modern Art]], [[Stockholm, Sweden]]]]
On midsummer's day, 1891, while staying with Siri and her close friend, the Danish woman Marie Caroline David, on the island [[Runmarö]], in the [[Stockholm Archipelago]], Strindberg suspected Siri was having a long-term affair with David, and he violently assaulted her, precipitating the end of the marriage. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/24641 | title=August Strindberg - dömd för misshandel i Värmdö häradsrätt | date=2 December 2021 }}</ref>

After his disenchantment with naturalism, Strindberg had a growing interest in transcendental matters. [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] was just beginning at this time. [[Verner von Heidenstam]] and Ola Hanson had dismissed naturalism as "shoemaker realism" that rendered human experience in simplistic terms. This is believed to have stalled Strindberg's creativity, and Strindberg insisted that he was in a rivalry and forced to defend naturalism, even though he had exhausted its literary potential. These works include: ''Debit and Credit'' (1892), ''Facing Death'' (1892), ''Motherly Love'' (1892), and ''The First Warning'' (1893). His play ''The Keys of Heaven'' (1892) was inspired by the loss of his children in his divorce. He also completed one of his few comedies, ''Playing with Fire'' (1893), and the first two parts of his post-inferno trilogy ''To Damascus'' (1898–1904).

In 1892, he experienced writer's block, which led to a drastic reduction in his income. Depression followed as he was unable to meet his financial obligations and to support his children and former wife. A fund was set up through an appeal in a German magazine. This money allowed him to leave Sweden and he joined artistic circles in Berlin. [[Otto Brahm]]'s Freie Bühne theatre premiered some of his famous works in Germany, including ''The Father'', ''Miss Julie'', and ''[[Creditors (play)|Creditors]]''.
[[File:Ślewiński August Strindberg.jpg|thumb|[[Władysław Ślewiński]], ''Portrait of August Strindberg'', 1896, [[National Museum in Warsaw]]]]
Similar to 20 years earlier when he frequented The Red Room, he now went to the German tavern The Black Porker. Here he met a diverse group of artists from Scandinavia, Poland, and Germany. His attention turned to [[Frida Uhl]], who was twenty-three years younger than Strindberg. They were married in 1893. Less than a year later, their daughter Kerstin was born and the couple separated, though their marriage was not officially dissolved until 1897. Frida's family, in particular her mother, who was a devout Catholic, had an important influence on Strindberg, and in an 1894 letter he declared "I feel the hand of our Lord resting over me."

Some critics think that Strindberg suffered from severe paranoia in the mid-1890s, and perhaps that he temporarily experienced insanity. Others, including Evert Sprinchorn and [[Olof Lagercrantz]], believed that he intentionally turned himself into his own guinea pig by doing psychological and drug-induced self-experimentation. He wrote on subjects such as [[botany]], [[chemistry]], and [[optics]] before returning to literature with the publication of ''Inferno'' (1897), a (half fictionalized) account of his "wilderness years" in Austria and Paris, then a collection of short stories, ''Legends'', and a semi-dramatic novella, ''Jacob Wrestling'' (both printed in the same book 1898). Both volumes aroused curiosity and controversy, not least due to the religious element; earlier, Strindberg had been known to be indifferent or hostile to religion and especially priests, but now he had undergone some sort of conversion to a personal faith. In a postscript, he noted the impact of [[Emanuel Swedenborg]] on his current work.

[[File:Eric XIV - M. Chekhov 1921.jpg|thumb|left|175px|[[Michael Chekhov]] as Erik in the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] 1921 production of Strindberg's play ''[[Eric XIV (play)|Erik XIV]]'' (1899).]]
"The Powers" were central to Strindberg's later work. He said that "the Powers" were an outside force that had caused him his physical and mental suffering because they were acting in retribution to humankind for their wrongdoings. As [[William Blake]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Honoré de Balzac]], and [[William Butler Yeats]] had been, he was drawn to [[Swedenborg]]'s mystical visions, with their depictions of spiritual landscape and Christian morality. Strindberg believed for the rest of his life that the relationship between the transcendental and the real world was described by a series of "correspondences" and that everyday events were really messages from above of which only the enlightened could make sense. He also felt that he was chosen by [[Divine Providence|Providence]] to atone for the moral decay of others and that his tribulations were payback for misdeeds earlier in his life.

Strindberg had spent the tail end of 1896 and most of 1897 in the university town of [[Lund]] in southern Sweden, a sojourn during which he made a number of new friendships, felt his mental stability and health improving and also firmly returned to literary writing; ''Inferno, Legends'' and ''Jacob Wrestling'' were written there. In 1899, he returned permanently to Stockholm, following a successful production there of ''Master Olof'' in 1897 (which was re-staged in 1899 to mark Strindberg's fiftieth birthday). He had the desire to become recognized as a leadíng figure in Swedish literature, and to put earlier controversies behind him, and felt that historical dramas were the way to attain that status. Though Strindberg claimed that he was writing "realistically", he freely altered past events and biographical information, and telescoped chronology (as often done in most historical fiction): more importantly, he felt a flow of resurgent inspiration, writing almost twenty new plays (many in a historical setting) between 1898 and 1902. His new works included the so-called Vasa Trilogy: ''The Saga of the Folkungs'' (1899), ''Gustavus Vasa'' (1899), and ''Erik XIV'' (1899) and ''[[A Dream Play]]'' (written in 1901, first performed in 1907).

===1900s===
{{more citations needed section|date=May 2017}}
Strindberg was pivotal in the creation of [[chamber play]]s. [[Max Reinhardt]] was a big supporter of his, staging some of his plays at the Kleines Theatre in 1902 (including ''The Bond'', ''The Stronger'', and ''The Outlaw''). Once [[Otto Brahm]] relinquished his role as head as of the [[Deutsches Theater (Berlin)|Deutsches Theatre]], Reinhardt took over and produced Strindberg's plays.

In 1903, Strindberg planned to write a grand cycle of plays based on world history, but the idea soon faded. He had completed short plays about [[Martin Luther]], [[Plato]], [[Moses]], [[Jesus Christ]], and [[Socrates]]. He wrote another historical drama in 1908 after the [[Royal Dramatic Theatre|Royal Theatre]] convinced him to put on a new play for its sixtieth birthday. He wrote ''The Last of the Knights'' (1908), ''Earl Birger of Bjälbo'' (1909), and ''The Regents'' (1909).

[[File:Portrait of August Strindberg by Richard Bergh 1905.jpg|thumb|right|A portrait of August Strindberg by [[Richard Bergh]] (1905).]]
His other works, such as ''Days of Loneliness'' (1903), ''The Roofing Ceremony'' (1907), and ''The Scapegoat'' (1907), and the novels ''The Gothic Rooms'' (1904) and ''Black Banners Genre Scenes from the Turn of the Century'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=54157&concordeid=310783|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401204924/http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=54157&concordeid=310783|url-status=dead|title=Strindberg, August. Translated and with an Introduction by Donald K. Weaver. Series: Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature – Volume 101. Peter Lang, New York, 2010.|archive-date=1 April 2012}}</ref> (1907) have been viewed as precursors to [[Marcel Proust]] and [[Franz Kafka]].

August Falck, an actor, wanted to put on a production of ''Miss Julie'' and wrote to Strindberg for permission. In September 1906 he staged the first Swedish production of ''Miss Julie''. August Falck, played Jean and Manda Bjorling played Julie.

In 1909, Strindberg thought he might get the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], but instead lost to [[Selma Lagerlöf]], the first woman and first Swede to win the award. The leader of the [[Social Democratic Youth of Denmark|Social Democrat Youth Alliance]] started a fund-raiser for a special "people's award". [[Nathan Söderblom]] (friend of Strindberg since the mid-90s years in Paris, a prominent theologian and later to become archbishop of Sweden) was noted as a donor, and both he and Strindberg came under attack from circles close to the conservative party and the church. In total 45,000 Swedish crowns were collected, by more than 20,000 donors, most of whom were workers. [[Albert Bonniers förlag]], who had already published much of his work over the years, paid him 200,000 Swedish crowns for the publishing rights to his complete works; the first volumes of the edition would appear in print in 1912, a few months before his death. He invited his first three children (now, like their mother, living in Finland) to Stockholm and divided the money into five shares, one for each child, one for Siri (absent), and the last one for himself. In setting apart one share for Siri, Strindberg noted, in a shy voice, "This is for your mother - it's to settle an old debt". When the children returned to Helsinki, Siri was surprised to hear that she had been included, but accepted the money and told them in a voice that was, according to her daughter Karin, both proud and moved, "I shall accept it, receiving it as an old debt". The debt was less financial than mental and emotional; Strindberg knew he had sometimes treated her unfairly during the later years of their marriage and at their divorce trial.<ref>[[Karin Smirnov]] (''née'' Strindberg), ''Strindbergs första hustru'' (Strindberg's first wife), 1925 and [[Olof Lagercrantz]], ''August Strindberg'', 1979</ref> In 1912, she would pass away only a few weeks before him.

In 1907, Strindberg co-founded [[Strindbergs Intima Teater|The Intimate Theatre]] in Stockholm, together with the young actor and stage director August Falck. His theatre was modeled after [[Max Reinhardt]]'s Kammerspiel Haus. Strindberg and Falck had the intention of the theatre being used for his plays and his plays only, Strindberg also wanted to try out a more chamber-oriented and sparse style of dramatic writing and production. In time for the theatre's opening, Strindberg wrote four chamber plays: ''Thunder in the Air, The Burned Site, The Ghost Sonata'', and ''The Pelican''; these were generally not a success with audiences or newspaper critics at the time but have been highly influential on modern drama (and soon would reach wider audiences at Reinhardt's theatre in Berlin and other German stages). Strindberg had very specific ideas about how the theatre would be opened and operated. He drafted a series of rules for his theatre in a letter to August Falck:

1. No liquor.<br />
2. No Sunday performances.<br />
3. Short performances without intermissions.<br />
4. No calls.<br />
5. Only 160 seats in the auditorium.<br />
6. No prompter. No orchestra, only music on stage.<br />
7. The text will be sold at the box office and in the lobby.<br />
8. Summer performances.

Falck helped to design the auditorium, which was decorated in a deep-green tone. The ceiling lighting was a yellow silk cover which created an effect of mild daylight. The floor was covered with a deep-green carpet, and the auditorium was decorated by six ultra modern columns with elaborate up-to-date capitals. Instead of the usual restaurant Strindberg offered a lounge for the ladies and a smoking-room for the gentlemen. The stage was unusually small, only 6 by 9 metres. The small stage and minimal number of seats was meant to give the audience a greater feeling of involvement in the work. Unlike most theatres at this time, the Intima Teater was not a place in which people could come to socialize. By setting up his rules and creating an intimate atmosphere, Strindberg was able to demand the audience's focus. When the theatre opened in 1907 with a performance of ''The Pelican'' it was a rather large hit. Strindberg used a minimal technique, as was his way, by only having a back drop and some sea shells on the stage for scene design and props. Strindberg was much more concerned with the actors portraying the written word than the stage looking pretty.

The theatre ran into a financial difficulty in February 1908 and Falck had to borrow money from [[Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke]], who attended the première of ''The Pelican''. The theatre eventually went bankrupt in 1910, but did not close until Strindberg's death in 1912. The newspapers wrote about the theatre until its death.

===Death and funeral===
[[File:Strindberg 2.jpg|thumb|right|Strindberg in his later years]]
Strindberg died shortly after the first staging of one of his plays in the [[United States]] — ''[[The Father (Strindberg)|The Father]]'' opened on 9 April 1912 at the Berkeley Theatre in New York, in a translation by painter and playwright Edith Gardener Shearn Oland and her husband actor [[Warner Oland]].<ref>Oland and Oland (1912a) and (1912b, v).</ref> They jointly published their translations of his plays in book form in 1912.

During Christmas 1911, Strindberg became sick with [[pneumonia]] and he never recovered completely. He also began to suffer more clearly from a [[stomach cancer]] (early signs of which had been felt in 1908). The final weeks of his life were painful. He had long since become a national celebrity, even if highly controversial, and when it became clear that he was seriously ill the daily papers in Stockholm began reporting on his health in every edition. He received many letters and telegrams from admirers across the country.<ref name="gefle">{{cite news |url=http://www.gd.se/kultur/pa-nya-kyrkogarden-vill-jag-ligga |title=På Nya Kyrkogården vill jag ligga... |last=Attius |first=Håkan |language=sv |newspaper=[[Gefle Dagblad]] |date=22 May 2012 |access-date=26 June 2017 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011072158/http://www.gd.se/kultur/pa-nya-kyrkogarden-vill-jag-ligga |url-status=dead }}</ref> He died on 14 May 1912 at the age of 63.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=j8ZMAAAAMAAJ&rdid=book-j8ZMAAAAMAAJ&rdot=1|title=August Strindberg: the spirit of revolt: studies and impressions|author=Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby|date=1 January 1913|publisher=Stanley Paul}}</ref>

Strindberg was interred at [[Norra begravningsplatsen]] in Stockholm. He had given strict instructions concerning his funeral and how his body should be treated after death: only members of his immediate family were allowed to view his body, there would be no autopsy, no photographs were taken, and no [[death mask]] was made. Strindberg had also requested that his funeral should take place as soon as possible after his death to avoid crowds of onlookers. However, the workers' organisations requested that the funeral should take place on a Sunday to make it possible for working men to pay their respects, and the funeral was postponed for five days, until Sunday, 19 May. According to Strindberg's last wish, the funeral procession was to start at 8am, again to avoid crowds, but large groups of people were nevertheless waiting outside his home as well as at the cemetery, as early as 7am. A short service was conducted by [[Nathan Söderblom]] by the bier in Strindberg's home, in the presence of three of Strindberg's children and his housekeeper, after which the coffin was taken outside for the funeral procession. The procession was followed by groups of students, workers, members of Parliament and a couple of cabinet ministers, and it was estimated that up to 60,000 people lined the streets. King [[Gustaf V]] sent a wreath for the bier.<ref name="gefle" /><ref name="svd funeral">{{cite news|url=https://www.svd.se/brottningen-med-gud-praglade-begravningen |title=Brottningen med Gud präglade begravningen |last=Krook |first=Caroline |language=sv |newspaper=[[Svenska Dagbladet]] |date=22 May 2012 |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref>