Ingeborg Erixson was a lauded and treasured poet. She was one of the ‘40talisterna’ (poets of the 1940s).

Ingeborg Erixson was born in Stockholm in 1902. Her father was a chief telegrapher. Her mother was also a telegrapher who also published short stories and poetry in the extremely popular weekly journal Hvar 8de dag. Her brother Åke Gustafsson later became a professor of genetics and devoted himself to genetic research. He too published around ten poetry collections and encouraged his sister in her own writing.

Ingeborg Erixson attended the Västervik girls’ school and for a time lived in Trelleborg with her parents. She became a qualified telegraph dispatch clerk, but found it difficult to get a job in the field. Instead she took administrative jobs at the Katalogredaktion, amongst other things. She was very interested in art and took a course in Dresden. She visited Paris and its museums several times. Once she had returned to Stockholm she began to move in artists’ and writers’ circles, which included the likes of Ivar Lo Johansson, Harry Martinsson, and Eyvind Johnson.

Ingeborg Erixson’s first published poem took the form of her contribution to the 1944 Ny lyric anthology. She had, however, been writing poems since childhood. Her own first poetry collection, entitled Tjällossning, was published in 1945. She released a total of seven poetry collections and a book called Dikter i urval. She often wrote about nature, but in Främling i eget landskap, from 1951, she also discussed her own time period. The terrors of the Second World War – which she wrote about – were very recent to her. She is sometimes considered to be one of the ‘40talisterna’ (poets of the ‘40s’) and is included in one of the significant anthologies of that era, namely the second edition of Bengt Holmqvist’s edited collection called 40-talslyrik. In 1978 Ingeborg Erixson was jointly awarded the Nils Ferlin prize for her poetry along with fellow poet Anna Rydstedt. In addition to her poetry, Ingeborg Erixson also wrote the biography of her artist husband Sven X:et Erixson, entitled X:et – de unga åren.

Ingeborg Erixson spent the majority of her life in Tattby in Saltsjöbaden with her family. She married Sven X:et Erixson in 1928 and they remained together until her husband’s death. During the 1930s they had two children together, a son called Sverre and a daughter called Irma. The family spent many summers in Söndrum in Halmstad where they socialised with the artists who were part of the Halmstadgroup. Söndrum inspired both Ingeborg Erixson and the Halmstadgroup in their ‘dream-like surrealism’, which is notable in her poetry, particularly in Ebb och flod, from 1948. Her 1946 poetry collection entitled Kustlandskap uses a painting of Söndrum on its cover. Just like the covers for her other collections it is signed Sven X:et Erixson.

Ingeborg Erixson died in 1992.