  harry martinson (6 may 1904 &ndash; 11 february 1978) was a swedish author, poet and former sailor. in 1949 he was elected into the swedish academy. he was awarded a joint nobel prize in literature in 1974 together with fellow swede eyvind johnson "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos".nobel prize in literature 1974 the choice was controversial, as both martinson and johnson were members of the academy and had partaken in endorsing themselves as laureates. he has been called "the great reformer of 20th century swedish poetry, the most original of the writers called 'proletarian'." == life == martinson was born in jÃ¤mshÃ¶g, blekinge county in south-eastern sweden. at a young age he lost both his parents whereafter he was placed as a foster child (kommunalbarn) in the swedish countryside. at the age of sixteen martinson ran away and signed onto a ship to spend the next years sailing around the world visiting countries such as brazil and india. thumb|220px|the headstone on martinson's grave in silverdal, sollentuna - north of stockholm a few years later lung problems forced him to set ashore in sweden where he travelled around without a steady employment, at times living as a vagabond on country roads. in the city of malmÃ¶, at the age of 21, he was arrested for vagrancy. in 1929, he debuted as a poet. together with artur lundkvist, gustav sandgren, erik asklund and josef kjellgren he authored the anthology fem unga (five youths),  which introduced swedish modernism. his poetry combined an acute eye for, and love of nature, with a deeply felt humanism. his popular success as a novelist came with the semi-autobiographical nÃ¤sslorna blomma (flowering nettles) in 1935, about hardships encountered by a young boy in the countryside. it has since been translated into more than thirty languages. from 1929 to 1940, he was married to moa martinson, whom he met through a stockholm anarchist newspaper brand. he travelled to the soviet union in 1934. he and moa were divorced due to her criticism of his la
1904_births 1978_deaths 20th-century_novelists 20th-century_poets Dobloug_Prize_winners Members_of_the_Swedish_Academy Nobel_laureates_in_Literature People_from_OlofstrAPm_Municipality Swedish-language_writers Swedish_Nobel_laureates Swedish_novelists Swedish_poets Swedish_science_fiction_writers Writers_who_committed_suicide