Leo Ågren

Karl Leo Johannes Ågren (26 July 1928 – 6 June 1984) was a Finland-Swedish author. He was brother to Erik, Gösta and Inga Ågren. He married Maj-Britt Bergström in 1962.

Life

Ågren was born in Nykarleby, the son of Rudolf Filemon Ågren, a farmer and worker, and Olga Elisabet Rosenblad. After completing middle school, he trained as a typographer and worked in this profession in Nykarleby until 1948. From 1951 to 1960, he worked in Jakobstad, where he also served as a reviewer for Jakobstads Tidning. He later relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, where he was employed as a typographer at Dagens Nyheter from 1964 to 1976. He debuted with the novel Hunger i skördetid, which focuses on the lives of tenant farmers (Swedish: Torpare) in Swedish Ostrobothnia. Kungsådern, När gudarna dör, and Fädrens blod is a historical trilogy about forest tenant farmers from the beginning of the 18th century until the war in 1918.

Ågren died in Stockholm at the age of 55 in 1984.

Bibliography

• Hunger i skördetid, 1954 (Schildts & Co., Porvoo)
• Motsols, 1955 (continuation of Hunger i skördetid, Schildts & Co., Jakobstad)
• Farsarvet, 1956
• Kungsådern, 1957 (Schildts & Co., Porvoo)
• När gudarna dör, 1959 (Schildts & Co., Jakobstad)
• Stämmor i nordannatten, 1960 (poetry, Schildts & Co., Tampere)
• Fädrens blod, 1961 (Schildts & Co., Porvoo)
• Ballad, 1962 (Schildts & Co., Tampere)
• Sällsamt skratta de döda, 1963–1964
• Krigshistoria, 1971 (Författarlaget, Gothenburg)

Literature

• Britt Ågren: En bok om Leo. 1996 (A Book About Leo [en])
• Gösta Ågren: En man gick genom stormen: Leo Ågrens liv och diktning. 1983. (A Man Walked Through the Storm: Leo Ågren's Life and Poetry/Writings[en])
• Mauritz Edström: ''Rättsida på Finlands avigsida.'' Studiekamraten 54/1972, pp. 21–24. (The Right Side of Finland's Wrong Side [en])