Walter Dickson (author)

Walter Dickson (22 February, 1916 - 23 March, 1990) was a Swedish author.

Biography
Dickson was born in New Haven in the United States, where his father worked as a carpenter. The family returned to Sweden in 1921 and settled in Vinberg near Falkenberg, where he was raised by his grandparents. Dickson graduated in Halmstad in 1936 and received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Gothenburg, but he also studied at universities in Uppsala and Stockholm. From 1943 he was a literature reviewer in the daily newspaper Ny Tid and also contributed to several Finnish and Swedish literary magazines and the trade union press.

Dickson made his debut as author with Perspektiv från Stigberget (1942) and Det gamla huset (1943), both collections of short stories depicting the working-class district of Masthugget in Gothenburg. In his largest work, he wrote a series of novels about his own family and its emigrant fates: Skallgång (1946), Vid havets rand (1948), Storbasens saga (1951), Carmania (1952), Amerika (1954), Oceanisk hemfärd (1955) and Solagömma (1957). Dickson also wrote cultural-historical essays and several books about the landscape of Halland. He was a socialist and in describing older times he is often critical of social ills. Despite this, in the 1970s he wrote for the Centre Party Youth's magazine Ung Center.

His narrative style is considered personal and inventive.

Awards

 * Arbetarnas bildningsförbund's literary prize 1957