The Nobel Stamps of 1976

Design: Lennart Forsberg Engaver: Arne Wallhorn Printing process: Recess Printed at: The Post Office Stamp Printing Works

 

The stamps portray Verner von Heidenstam, Nobel Literature Laureate of 1916:

The Swedish poet Verner von Heidenstam was the only Nobel Laureate in Literature 1916. The stamp shows his characteristic, birdlike profile against a background of the glittering waters of Lake Vättern, which inspired much of Heidenstam's poetry.

To be able to appreciate your own environment, it is necessary to have experienced different ones and, in Heidenstam's first book, "Pilgrimage and wander-years", 1888, he pays homage to the Orient with its bright colours and lightheartedness. His lyrical poetry is hard to appreciate except through the Swedish language. It reached a peak of orchestral richness in "Poems", 1895. His poetry underwent a transition to greater lucidity; a classical, quiet simplicity in the collection "New Poems", 1915, which was the last book the poet published. His prose, on the other hand, is available in translation and understandable as well. "The Charles Men" describes how the followers of King Charles XII attained moral greatness in defeat.

To his countrymen Heidenstam is best known as the writer of the poem that begins "Sweden, Sweden, Sweden native country" which, in its musical settings by the Swede Willhelm Stenhammar, has won the position as Sweden's inofficial national anthem.

 

© 1976 SWEDEN POST STAMPS