Alfred Jensen

Who was Alfred Jensen?

Alfred Anton Jensen was a Swedish historian, slavist, writer, poet.

Alfred Jensen was born in Hälsingtuna, Gävleborg County, and studied at the Uppsala University. From 1884 to 1887 he worked for one of Sweden's largest newspapers — Göteborgs Handels-och Sjöfartstidning. He visited Germany, Serbia, Bulgaria and other Slavic countries. In 1901 he received a position at the Nobel Institute of the Swedish Academy at Stockholm. In 1907 he received an honorary degree in philosophy from the Uppsala University.

Jensen became one of the prominent translators of Slavic literature into Swedish. He translated Gogol, Turgenev, Pushkin, Lermontov, Shevchenko, Kotsyubynsky and Mickiewicz. He also contributed literary critique on Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and Czech literature. His historic works included Russian cultural history, Mazepa and others. In 1911 he became a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.

Jensen died in Vienna on 15 September 1921 and is buried at the Inzersdorf cemetery.