TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER (1931-2015) was a Swedish lyrical poet and translator who was acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since the Second World War.  Critics praised his poetry for its accessibility, even in translation, and its startling, suggestive metaphors which have been associated with a literary surrealism.  He won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature "because," in the words of the Swedish Academy, "through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality."

Tranströmer's first collection of poetry, 17 POEMS (1954), showed the influence of Modernism in its spare language and startling imagery, and met with critical acclaim.  To a substantial degree, he had already developed his distinctive language here: the original and sharply contoured metaphors, musicality, strictness of form and natural diction – qualities that reappeared in his later books of poetry.  His poems captured the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature.  His work is characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension.

The volumes that followed, including THE HALF-FINISHED HEAVEN (1962), were composed in a more personal style, with plainer diction and personal perspective more in evidence.  In those and later books, Tranströmer's poetic observations of nature combine richness of meaning with the utmost simplicity of style.  In the 1960s he established a friendship with the American poet Robert Bly, who translated many of his poems into English.  Their day-to-day correspondence on a variety of personal, contemporary and literary matters is published in AIRMAIL (2013).

In 1990 Tranströmer suffered a debilitating stroke and almost entirely lost his ability to speak.  Nevertheless, he published a memoir, MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (1993), containing keys into his intensely spiritual, metaphysical poetry, and THE GREAT ENIGMA (2004), gathering all the poems he published between 1954 and 2004.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise indicated:


                                == POETRY ==

* Bright Scythe: Selected Poems (Sarabande, 2015).  Patty Crane, trans.
* Deleted World, The (FSG, 2011).  Versions by Robin Robertson.
* Friends, You Drank Some Darkness (Beacon, 1975).  Robert Bly, trans. -- PDF
* Great Enigma, The (New Directions, 2006).  Robin Fulton, trans.
* Half-Finished Heaven, The (Graywolf, 2017 / Penguin, 2018).  Robert Bly, trans.
* New Collected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2011).  Robin Fulton, trans.
* Selected Poems (Ardis, 1981).  Robin Fulton, trans. -- PDF
* Selected Poems of Haavikko & Tranströmer (Penguin, 1974). Fulton, trans. -- PDF
* Selected Poems 1954-1986 (Ecco, 1987). Robert Hass, ed. -- PDF
* Windows and Stones (Pittsburgh, 1972). M. Swenson & L. Sjoberg, trans. -- PDF


                            == PROSE & LETTERS ==

* Airmail: Letters of Robert Bly and Tranströmer (Graywolf, 2013). T. Smith ed.
* Memories Look At Me: A Memoir (New Directions, 2011).  Robin Fulton, trans.