Page:Strindberg the Man (1920).djvu/43

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FIRST MEETING WITH STRINDBERG
39

the entirely idyllic and devote himself and his pen to the titanic, the grandeur of our west coast, which I considered to be more fitting for the author of The Father.

After six years of exile Strindberg could stand it no longer. He had to return to his beloved Sweden once more, and it had become so dear to him on account of the visions caused by his long absence, that he could not be satisfied with anything less than actually embracing and beholding his entire native land. He must see it and describe it.

The provincial critic had always emphasized his rural descriptions as the best in his prose works. The practical up-to-date publisher could afford, therefore, to be interested in such a plan as to let Strindberg, the then dethroned chief, undertake a king's circuit through the land.

I had not been able to find out what parts of the country he had covered. But he must have had a particular interest in Bohuslän, for one of the first provinces that he explored rather thoroughly was that province.

One day in September, 1890, the local press announced that August Strindberg had arrived in Gothenburg and taken up his abode at Göta Källare.[1] He intended to study the natural sceneries of Bohuslän and go on a sail along the coast.

One of the first to call on him was Gustaf af Geijerstam[2], who was at the time employed by August Lindberg

  1. ↑ One of the principal hotels.
  2. ↑ Swedish author (1858-1909).
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.