Erik Mesterton


Erik Mesterton was a Swedish writer, literary critic and translator.
Together with poet Karin Boye he was editor for the influential culture magazine Spektrum in the 1930s and Freudian readings of literature were introduced. Mesterton lived in Gothenburg where he also did research on literature with scholars from the University of Gothenburg.
Mesterton's translation of Eliot's The [Waste Land], made in collaboration with Karin Boye, and his essays in Spektrum was widely influential on Swedish 20th century literature.
Mesterton also translated from several other languages, including works by the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert, and translated Swedish authors such as Pär Lagerkvist to English. In 1967, he re-translated Hamlet to Swedish in collaboration with Erik Lindegren.

Selected translations