Harry Martinson is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century Swedish literature. When he began publishing his works, critics and fellow writers alike quickly recognized his lyric gifts; in particular, his collection Nomad (1931) contributed greatly to the introduction of literary modernism in Sweden. Innovative without being obscure, Martinson was an extremely popular writer as well, and his verse epic, Aniara: En revy om människan i tid och rum (1956; translated as Aniara: A Review of Man in Time and Space, 1963), is one of the most important works of the postwar generation. His country officially recognized him with such honors as his election to the Swedish Academy in 1949 and a Nobel Prize for literature in 1974.

Martinson began his career as a writer in the late 1920s, along with several other writers and artists from working-class origins, most of whom were self-educated, or autodidacts. For this...