Sven Lidman

Who was Sven Lidman?

Sven Lidman, was a Swedish lexicographer living in Stockholm, son of the writer Sven Lidman.

He was the main editor or managing director of several Swedish encyclopedias, including the 5th edition of Kunskapens bok, Focus, Lilla Focus, Combi Visuell, Combi lexikon, Familjens universallexikon, Bonniers familjelexikon, and Bonniers stora lexikon. His ideas to use illustrations not to but with the text took European lexicography to new heights with Focus and Combi Visuell. The later is a rare landmark in visualization from the same booming years that saw the first moon landing.

In 1983, Sven Lidman took the initiative to the founding of Bild och Ord Akademin, the Swedish Academy of Verbovisual Communication, where he holds the honorary title of Preses Magnificus. Since its beginning in 1983 the Academy awards an annual Lidman Prize for good information in words and images.

His autobiography Uppslagsboken och jag covering the 1950s through 1970s was published after it was decided that the Swedish state order for Nationalencyklopedin went to a competing publisher. An updated autobiography was published in 2006, Fadern, sonen och den härliga bokbranschen. ISBN 91-85267-86-4. The two works are overlapping, but the latter contains more of personal reflexions and uses more of the illustration techniques that the author preaches, in addition to covering the 1990s. A continued chapter can be downloaded in PDF from the publisher's website.