Dedication

Förförare by the way comes with a dedication that has my mind spinning:

To my Danish friends,

the Actors

Albrecht and Robert Schmidt.

Who were THEY?

I definitely need to learn more about Ulla's life in Copenhagen before World War I. (She lived on this street a while. Max and/or Jennie, are you reading this?)

There are some great descriptions of those days in one of Evert Taube's first novels where the character Ella Bjerke is drawn largely from Ulla's personality.

I need to spend a month or so in wonderful Copenhagen, read Evert Taube novels and eat delicious smørrebrød.

That will happen.

Dolce far niente

Home again in Stockholm I am getting used to the overwhelming presence of ”the people of reality” (verklighetens folk).

This nation is indeed a big fat realm of reality, not always ideal for us dream...sters.

I went to Capri, l'Isola del Sogno, fearing, hoping I would dream awake every hour and not be able to work a minute.

Ulla Bjerne told me as much in the foreword to Förförare (1920):

I want to firmly dissuade anyone from going to Italy to work. During the three months I spent in Rome I made desperate attempts at putting down some of my impressions on paper. Impossible. Doing nothing was in the air. Everything was new, wonderful and soaked with sunshine.

- - -

In addition, according to Suetonius, when the emperor Augustus came to Capri he coined the name Apragopolis – specifically for Anacapri if I remember correctly – meaning city-of-do-nothings.

Well, if this was idle country it had nothing to do with me. The minute I came to the island I had lots of energy. Rarely have I felt so happy to work, writing this blog in particular.

Instead of doing sweet nothing I got even more caught up in my obsession with Ulla Bjerne, this very singular woman, who also happens to be my relative.

My age-old plans for a film or a book about Ulla have been extended. There is now a blog in continous progress. At least this one's happening and will continue to be. We'll see about the rest.