Fryxell, ANDERS

Fryxell, ANDERS, a Swedish historian, was born 7th February 1795, at Hesselskog in Dalsland; studied at Uppsala, took priest's orders in 1820, and in 1828 became rector of a gymnasium in Stockholm. From 1835 to 1847 he was parish priest of Sunna in Vermland, and from this latter year he devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits till his death at Stockholm, 21st March 1881. His reputation rests upon Berättelser ur Svenska Historien ('Narratives from Swedish History,' 46 vols. Stockh. 1832-80). These narratives, largely biographical in form, and distinguished by their impartial love of truth, soon obtained a wide popularity in Sweden. Parts of them have been translated into almost all European languages (Eng. trans. edited by Mary Howitt, 1844). Another work, Conspiracies of the Swedish Aristocracy (4 vols. Uppsala, 1845-50), was intended as a reply to the accusations urged against that class by Geijer and others, and involved Fryxell in a keen controversy with the democratic liberal party in Sweden. Besides these works he wrote a Contribution to the History of the Literature of Sweden (9 vols. 1860-62). Fryxell also laboured, both by his own example and by the publication of a Swedish Grammar, to purify his native language from the parasitism of foreign words.