Bernhard Nordh (1900–1972)

Bernhard Nordh was born on April 19, 1900 in Björklinge, near Uppsala. He died at August 9, 1972 and was buried near the Cathedral of Uppsala.
Bernhard's mother, Selma Bolin, was single. The first years of his life he lived with his grandparents. When Bernhard was six years old, his mother married a man who was 21 years older: Johan Nordh. He adopted Bernhard and gave him his surname. The family lived in Strömsberg in the northern part of Uppland province. His father had a farm. The rural life is hard; Bernhard Nordh described this in his first novel, Jorden är god (1936). Already at the age of 14 Bernhard went to work in a foundry in Tierp. Later he had physically demanding jobs such as peat cutter and railroad worker. In 1917 he was involved in the construction of the railroad from Tierp to Strömsberg. In this period he studied Swedish and English by correspondence.
In 1919 Nordh moved to Lapland to hunt for bears. He had been dreaming about this for a very long time, but it was less successful than he had thought. He became seriously ill in his self-built cabin.
He married twice. In March 1932 he married in Uppsala with Helga Kristina Bergsten. In November 1962 he married Anna-Tine Andersson from Sigtuna.

Besides novels, Nordh has written many short stories. His literary debut as a novelist was in the weekly press in 1926 and according to his own bookkeeping he wrote 369 short stories up to 1942.
The year after his debut novel in 1936, he received a public breakthrough with 'I Marsfjällets skugga', a story about North Sweden, which until his death would be followed by 26 more novels.
In 1936 Nordh visited Vilhelmina (Lapland) and the mountains west of Vilhelmina. He has conducted research on the settlers and collected data for his novels about the area. For the main character in the compelling novel 'I Marsfjället skugga' Bernhard Nordh has had extensive interviews with the children and grandchildren from Lars Pålsson.
In his third best-selling novel, published in 1938: 'Undan frostpiskan' or 'Flickan från fjällbyn', as it was renamed in a later edition, he describes the emigration to America of the residents in the small village of Vilhelmina, caused by starvation during the first twenty years from 1900. The village's population then declined from 60 people to 5.
Some novels are about life in rural, while another group of novels - in Swedish 'Vildmarksromaner' - focuses on the lives of the "settlers" in the rugged wilderness of northwestern Sweden.
The writing style is enjoyable and very narrative. Nordh was a born storyteller, who lived in rural areas and in the wilderness, describing everything with a great sense of details and realism. All facets of life in this difficult period - usually between 1850 and 1920 - were described in his books.