author
Ida Bäckmann
1867–1950
A Swedish journalist and author who lived a strikingly adventurous life, she moved from teaching into travel writing, war reporting, and literary biography. She is especially remembered for her books about Gustaf Fröding and Selma Lagerlöf.
1 Audiobook
Gustaf Fröding
by Ida Bäckmann
About the author
Born in Åmål in 1867, Ida Bäckmann began her working life as a teacher before turning to journalism and writing. According to the Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon, she grew up in a deeply religious home and later built a varied career that included travel in Eastern Europe and work as a reporter.
She became best known for her biographical writing on two major Swedish literary figures, Gustaf Fröding and Selma Lagerlöf. Those books helped secure her place in Swedish literary history, even though her own life was dramatic enough to seem novelistic in itself.
Bäckmann died in 1950. Today she is remembered as a writer of unusual range: a former teacher who became a journalist, traveler, and author with a lasting connection to Sweden’s literary world.