If the modernist movement in Sweden and Finland during the first two decades of the 20th century were a film, Ulla Bjerne would have been an extra in it. And an important one. She would appear in a good number of scenes as she seems to have known everyone who played a significant role in the arts and letters, particularly within the avantgarde. (But extra is not the right word here, extras are silent. Ulla Bjerne was never silent.)
She was good friends with, and sometimes had romantic relationships with, the following Swedish arts and letters giants. Evert Taube, Nils Dardel, GAN (Gösta Adrian-Nilsson - one of Sweden's most prolific pioneers and most sought after within the gay community; he was an expressionist, a futurist, a cubist and finally a surrealist!), Isaac Grünewald, Einar Jolin,Leander Engström, Frans G Bengtsson.
And many more, also later on in Finland.
”The life and work of Ulla Bjerne” has been my on-again off-again hobby for more than a decade.
One day I will present a film or a book about her fascinating personality. (There is manuscript but there is no time.)
I have, I believe, the largest collection of her books. (Easy, I would imagine nobody else collects them.) Rivaled only by the library in her home in Lovisa by the Gulf of Finland.
I have travelled in Ulla's footsteps in Copenhagen, Paris and elsewhere in France where she spent a good deal of the 1910's and 20's.
Also, I have visited places and people in Finland where she 1921 became Ulla (Bjerne-)Biaudet when she married the Léon Biaudet, a physician of local prominence, and came to be involved in the litterary circles of modernist Swedish-speaking Finland.
3 comments:
Good evening,
I introduce my self: my name is Antonio Lanza, I am from Sicily, 30 years old.
I've found now your blog while I was looking for something about Ulla Bjerne. I'm an aspiring writer. I'm writing a biography about the life of Antonio Bruno, an avant-gard sicilian poet, who also translated in italian Baudelaire, Poe etc. He committed suicide in 1932 when he was 40. Antonio Bruno writed in his diary (1921) that he met a beautiful swedish writer on a train, in Sicily Sicily. Her name was Ulla Bjerne. Ulla was going to Taormina. She told Antonio Bruno that she would have move to Paris after visiting Sicily. They promised that they would have met in Paris. Ulla's books are not translated in italian. Have you got any Ulla's photos? Antonio Bruno described Ulla as beautiful. Can you tell me something else about her? Did Ulla tell something about Antonio Bruno in her memories? Who knows if they met again in Paris...
Antonio Lanza
Dear Antonio,
Thank you for your message which made me very happy!
As you may have noted it's been a while since I wrote this blog (2008).
How great to hear about Antonio Bruno meeting Ulla (who was my grandmother's cousin). Sadly, I can't find any information about him and I have in my possession copies of an index from the Åbo Akademi in Finland listing most known letters to Ulla Bjerne.
Do you have any more information on their meetings? Do you know if they wrote letters?
Please send me your e-mail address and I can send you images of Ulla Bjerne.
Best regards,
Lars Fuhre
lars@fuhre.com
I sent you an email to your mail address. Mine is antonio.lanza451@gmail.com
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