Kellgren, Johan Henric

(1751-1795)

   A Swedish poet and critic, Kellgren had his roots in neoclassical tastes and Enlightenment thought, but also showed appreciation for the preromanticism of the late 1700s. Born into a clerical family and afflicted with tuberculosis most of his adult life, Kellgren was educated at Abo University in Finland, where he studied classical literature. His numerous allusions to Greek and Roman writers make his poetry less accessible to contemporary readers.

   Kellgren was attracted to Stockholm by the literary and cultural flowering associated with the court of King Gustav III. He became associated with the newspaper Stockholms Posten (The Stockholm Post) and was also a leading member of the literary society Utile Dulci (Usefulness and Pleasure)—named after a core dictum in Horace's Ars Poetica—in which he had some editorial responsibilities. His position as cultural leader was consolidated when he was asked to collaborate with the king on the opera Gustaf Wasa, which premiered 19 January 1786. King Gustav produced a prose draft in French, which Kellgren then turned into Swedish verse. The two of them similarly produced the libretto for GustafAdolfoch Ebba Brahe (1786-1787; Gustaf Adolf and Ebba Brahe), after which Kellgren got tired of the collaboration. While Kellgren was at first critical of the work of Carl Michael Bellman, he later wrote an appreciative introduction to Bellman's Fredmans epistlar (1790; Fredman's Epistles), in which he acknowledged the poet's genius.