August Strindberg (Cyclopedia of World Authors)

Johan August Strindberg, greatest of Swedish writers and one of the few true geniuses among modern dramatists, was born in Stockholm on January 22, 1849. He barely escaped illegitimacy, for his father, a bankrupt shipping agent, married his servant-mistress just before August’s birth; three boys had been born before the marriage, and of the numerous children born later, four survived to crowd the tiny flat of the impoverished family. The overly sensitive boy was unhappy at home and less happy at school. He felt himself tormented because of his origins, and he was exasperated by a...

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