Author Sven Lindqvist is dead

Sven Lindqvist was just 10 years old when the seed was sown for his most famous book. He read then the English missionary William Sjöbloms depiction of the atrocities committed by the belgian colonizers during the genocide in the Congo in the 1880s.

50 years later he wrote, ”Eradicate every last bastard” (1992), whose title is taken from Joseph Conrad's novel ”heart of Darkness”. The book is about the racist policy of extermination that Europe pursued in their colonies, and which, according to Sven Lindqvist was a prerequisite for the economic prosperity that the western world then managed to achieve.

a comprehensive of the day about the Holocaust, because Sven Lindqvist in his book argues that the Nazi policy of extermination during the second world war has a historical background of the policy of extermination that Europe had long ago engaged in their colonies. Auschwitz was the ”modern, industrial application of an annihilation, on which european world domination long ago rested”, he wrote.

”Exterminate every single bastard” was internationally acclaimed and was translated to a wide range of languages. 15 years later, it was set up as a play at Stockholms stadsteater.

Read more: Johan Croneman: the Film that is approaching Sven Lindqvist, which I wish I dared to

was a well-established author well before 1992, and had already at a young age become accustomed to his books, could bring the debate. He made his debut with essäboken ”A proposal” in 1955 and ended up in the hot air for the first time with the little stridsskriften ”Advertising is deadly dangerous”, where he describes advertising as capitalist society's counterpart to the communist propaganda. It received great attention at the time of release in 1957 and has also been translated into several languages.

His widow Agneta Stark says to DN that Lindqvist, who suffered from Parkinson's disease for 15 years, was the ”done, but tired,” the last time in life.

– We read aloud from several good writing together, he and I, Gunnar Ekelöf, among other things. He followed intensively in the world when it comes to far-right extremism and Brexit and was his usual wise engaged and småförbannad in a characteristic way for us who knew him well, " she says.

He spent the last few months on a particular accommodation in Bräcke diakoni. She describes it as a nice last time.

" I think you can say that he was finished with it he made. He was a very great writer and he has meant a lot for many people and I get to know when people now write to me. There are many who have read him and he has helped many, he was happy and proud.

cultivated their own literary style in which he wove together personal reflections with social criticism, aphorisms, reportage, autobiography, and history.

Sven Lindqvist, 1998. Photo: Lennart Isaksson/TT

is ”the Myth of Wu Tao-tzu” (1967), ”Dig where you stand” (1978), ”A lover's diary” (1981), ”Bench press” (1988), ”Ökendykarna” (1990), ”Now you died: bombernas century” (1999) and ”Terra Nullius -- a journey through no one's land” (2005).

Sven Lindqvist has been employees at Today's News kultursida since 1951. Three reportageserier in DN from Latin america were awarded with Stora journalistpriset in 1969. Among other things, was Sven Lindqvist in the bolivian town of Vallegrande where Che Guevara revolutionsförsök was shattered in 1967.

also a lot in Asia, and these trips made an impression in a long series of books and in newspaper articles. The 1970s period rapportböckerna ”Soil, and power in south America” (1973) and ”Earth dawn” (1974) are two examples.

His books have been translated into about 15 languages.

Europe's dark history with colonialism, imperialism, racism and genocide, were recurring themes in her writing.

literature with a thesis on Vilhelm Ekelund in 1966 and became an honorary doctor at Uppsala university in 1979. In the years 1961-1962 he served as cultural attaché in Beijing in 1961-62 and in ”the Myth of Wu Tao-tzu”, he talks about how the CIA then tried to enlist him as a spy. Together with his then-wife, china expert Cecilia Lindqvist, he wrote the books ”China from the inside” (1963) and the ”Asian experience” (1964).

the Policy was Sven Lindqvist during the entire life close to the social democrats. At times, he directed, however, strong criticism against the party, including at the unveiling of the IB affair in 1973 and at the pensionsuppgörelsen with the bourgeois parties in 1998.

Sven Lindqvist, 1999. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

purely autobiographical books include the self-disclosure of the novels ”A lover's diary” (1981) and ”A married man's diary” (1982), in which Sven Lindqvist in the writing returned to the old diary entries.

2013 sent the SVT documentary ”Ökendykaren” where Hans-Erik Therus portrayed Sven Lindqvist, and went with him and his wife Agneta Stark on trips, performances and lectures both in Sweden and abroad.

”the Myth of Wu Tao-tzu” came out in nyupplaga 2017, 50 years after the release of the edition. Last year, he published ”Sanningskonst”, a book in which Sven Lindqvist talks with author Stefan Jonsson, professor of ethnicity, about his life and writings.

87.