 horace oscar axel engdahl (born 30 december 1948) is a swedish literary historian and critic, and has been a member of the swedish academy since 1997. he was the permanent secretary of the swedish academy, i.e. its spokesman, from 1999 to june 2009, when he was succeeded by swedish author and historian peter englund. ==biography== engdahl was born in karlskrona, blekinge, sweden. he earned his b.a. in 1970 http://www.svenskaakademien.se/web/horace_engdahl_1.aspx at stockholm university; he earned his doctoral degree (fil. dr.) in 1987, with a study on swedish romanticism, but had meanwhile been active as a literary critic, translator and journal editor, and was one of the introducers of the continental tradition of literary scholarship in sweden. he is adjunct professor of scandinavian literature at the university of aarhus in denmark. he speaks swedish, english, german, french and russian fluently. on 16 october 1997, engdahl became a member of the swedish academy, elected to seat number 17 vacated by the death of johannes edfelt; on 1 june 1999, he succeeded sture allÃ©n as the academy's permanent secretary, i.e. its executive member and spokesperson. as such, he had the annual task of announcing the recipient of the nobel prize in literature to the public. on 20 december 2008 it was announced that after ten years engdahl would step down as the academy's permanent secretary on 1 june 2009. between 1989 and 2014 he was married to ebba witt-brattstrÃ¶m, professor of literature at sÃ¶dertÃ¶rn university outside stockholm. together they have three sons. ==controversy== in october 2008, engdahl told the associated press that the united states is "too insular and ignorant to challenge europe as the center of the literary world""no nobel prizes for american writers: they're too parochial" by suzanne goldenberg, the guardian, thursday 2 october 2008 and does not really "participate in the big dialogue of literature."{{dead link|date=november 2012|bot=le
1948_births Living_people Members_of_the_Swedish_Academy People_from_Karlskrona Stockholm_University_alumni Swedish_literary_critics Swedish_literary_scholars Swedish_translators Translators_to_Swedish