Edith Södergran’s biography The Starcatcher by Agneta Rahikainen is out in Danish with Turbine, and is being welcomed with warm praise.
The Weekendavisen newspaper has reviewed the book commenting:
“What stands out the most about Rahikainen’s biography is that she makes Södergran more of a person than a myth. By weaving her into a historical context consisting of wars, political unrest, and closing of national borders, and more concretely placing her in a half claustrophobic everyday life in increasingly smaller houses, that slowly are emptied of furniture and possessions because of poverty, she slowly comes to life for us.”
In this biography by Agneta Rahikainen, we follow a fascinating narration of Södergran’s life story, from her upbringing in St Petersburg, to her passion for photography and her debut as an author, and then the time in sanatoria and eventually the in Raivola, Carelia, leading up to her death. Edith Södergran’s life was exceedingly short, but eventful and marked by the unruly times she lived in: the last days of Tsarist Russia, the war, and the outbreak of tuberculosis of the early 1900s. Her poetry enjoyed worldwide appreciation, and was translated into 27 languages.
Agneta Rahikainen (1963) is a literary scholar and non-fiction author, who has written two more books about Södergran and, among others, a book about syphilis (Smittans rike: Om syfilis i konst, kultur och kropp) published by the Swedish publisher Natur&Kultur.
Turbine is a publishing house based in Aarhus, founded in 2004. With an impressive over 400 titles a year, they have quickly earned a spot among the leading publishing houses in Denmark, and they have previously published Edith Södergran’s poems in Danish.