Ernst Skarstedt

Ernst Teofil Skarstedt (April 14, 1857 – March 13, 1929) was a Swedish-American author, journalist, and editor of Swedish-language books and newspapers. He is most noted as the author of a three-volume trilogy covering the Swedish immigrant experience in the Pacific Northwest.

Background
Ernst Teofil Skarstedt was born in Solberga parish, municipality of Kungälv, in Västra Götaland County, located in the traditional province of Bohuslän, Sweden. He was the son of Carl Wilhelm Skarstedt (1815–1908) and Hedvig Elina Wieselgren (1839–1863). Skarstedt was born at the parsonage, where his father served as a parish priest. His father later became a distinguished professor of theology at Lund University. His younger brother was Swedish journalist and politician Carl Abraham Waldemar Skarstedt (1861–1931).

Career
Skarstedt graduated from Lund University in 1877. He emigrated to the United States in 1878. Skarstedt became the co-editor of Svenska amerikanaren in 1880 and Svenska tribunen in 1884, both published in Chicago. From 1891, he edited Vestkusten, published in San Francisco. He was later hired as the editor of Nordstjernan in New York City. Later, having moved to Portland, Oregon, Skarstedt made an attempt to publish a local Swedish-language newspaper, Demokraten, a newspaper aimed at educating Swedes about local politics.

In 1890, Skarstedt published Oregon och Washington: Dessa staters historia, resurser och folkliv, a volume that combined history with a handbook for potential settlers. Washington och dess Svenska Befolkning was published in 1908. This provided a history of the area and descriptions of communities and industries. In 1911, he published the last volume in his trilogy Oregon och dess svenska befolkning containing biographies of prominent Swedish-Americans.

Ernst Skarstedt died in Seattle, Washington, during 1929.

Selected works

 * Svensk-amerikanska poeter i ord och bild (1890)
 * Oregon och Washington (1890)
 * Våra pennfäktare (1897)
 * Under västliga skyar, poetry (1907)
 * Washington och dess svenska befolkning (1908)
 * California och dess Svenska Befolkning (1910)
 * Oregon och dess svenska befolkning (1911)
 * Vagabond och redaktör (1914)
 * Svensk-amerikanska folket i helg och söcken (1917)

Other sources

 * Nordström, Lars (2008)  Swedish Oregon (Portland, OR: Swedish Roots in Oregon Press) ISBN 978-1607021445
 * Rosqvist, Leif (2008) The Great History of Swedes in Oregon (Portland, OR: Swedish Roots in Oregon Press)

Related reading

 * Barton, H. Arnold (1994) A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840-1940 (Southern Illinois University Press) ISBN 9780809319435
 * Benson, Arnold B. (1938) Swedes in America, 1638-1938 with Naboth Hedin (New York: Haskell House Publishers)