Martinson, Harry Edmund (1904–1978)

Swedish poet and writer. He wrote vivid poetry including Nomad (1931), and prose sketches, Kap Farvall/Cape Farewell (1933). Vägen till Klockrike/The Road to Klockrike (1948) is a novel about a tramp at the turn of the century, but his most celebrated work is about space travel, the poetic epic Aniara (1956). The spaceship Aniara which flies irrevocably off course is a symbol of humanity in the atomic age. Martinson's later poetry consists of delicate miniatures from nature. He shared the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1974 with Eyvind Johnson.

He was born in Jäshög in Blekinge. Brought up in foster homes and institutions, he ran away to sea, reporting his experiences in his early writings. Nässlorna blomma/Flowering Nettle (1935) is an autobiographical novel of childhood.