Holger Drachmann | Biography

Holger Drachmann made his official debut as a writer in 1872 and was a prolific artist until his death in 1908. During most of this period, his contemporaries regarded him, as he himself did, as the national Danish poet par excellence. In the eyes of many of his countrymen, Holger Drachmann was the Danish alternative to such famous Scandinavian contemporaries as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg. But in contrast to these authors, and despite his pursuit of literary fame, Drachmann never was able to gain a level of international recognition that could equal theirs. In his own country, though, Drachmann's renown was undisputed and lasted until his death. The enthusiasm evinced for Drachmann's work by his fellow countrymen during his lifetime turned out to be fleeting, and in the decades succeeding his death, a slow but unstoppable decline in the popularity and recognition of his oeuvre took place....
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