Sprecher
Beschreibung
During the first decades of the twentieth century, the profession of literary agent emerged in Scandinavia, largely shaped by three pioneers: David Grünbaum in Copenhagen, Gösta Dahl in Stockholm, and Lena I. Gedin, initially based in Berlin and later in Stockholm.
The sources documenting their activities are scarce, despite their fundamental role in establishing and defining the profession and their importance as key actors in the cultural transfer between countries, particularly during the Second World War.
The available material provides only limited insight, with one important exception: the private archive of Lena I. Gedin. Gedin’s archive offers an intimate view of the interplay between personal and professional relationships that formed the basis of the agents’ work. Notably, she differed from her two colleagues and competitors by not only acting as a sub-agent to British and American agents but also serving as the main agent in Scandinavia for a number of important authors, including Karen Blixen and all members of the Thomas Mann family. In these cases, symbolic capital (prestige) and income were unusually and instructive intertwined.
However, her archive also raises a number of methodological questions: How can a coherent picture be constructed from an archive marked by evident gaps? How should a source created by a single actor in a highly competitive field be assessed and contextualized?
Speaker Bio:
David Gedin,
Associate Professor of Literary Studies, Uppsala universitet, with a focus on sociology of literature.
Recent book publications include:
Boken som fetisch: numrerade upplagor i Sverige 1819-1915, 2022 (The Book as Fetish: Numbered Editions in Sweden 1819–1915).
Strindbergs Schering; Emil Scherings brev till August Strindberg (1899-1912): Original, samt översättning och kommentarer av David Gedin och Karin Hoff, 2025. (Strindberg’s Schering; Emil Schering’s Letters to August Strindberg [1899–1912]: [German] Original, Translations, and Commentaries by David Gedin and Karin Hoff.)
I am currently working on a study of the emergence of literary agents in the Nordic countries from 1900 to 1980, which is expected to be published in 2027.