Stig Halvard Dagerman (5 October 1923 – 4 November 1954) was a Swedish author and journalist prominent in the aftermath of World War II.
Stig Dagerman was born Stig Halvard Andersson in Älvkarleby, Uppsala County. He later took his father's surname Jansson and then changed his name to Stig Dagerman in his teens. In the course of five years, 1945–49, he enjoyed success with four novels, a collection of short stories, a book about postwar Germany, five plays, hundreds of poems and satirical verses, several essays of note and a large amount of journalism.
In 1953-54 he was married to actress Anita Björk.
After the 1953 divorce from his first wife, battling deepening depression, he committed suicide in 1954, having shut the doors of the garage and run the engine.
Dagerman is representative of the Swedish literary movement fyrtiotalism. His works deal with universal problems of morality and conscience, of sexuality and social philosophy, of love, compassion, justice, fear, guilt, and loneliness. Despite the somber content, he also displays a wry sense of humor that occasionally turns his writing into burlesque or satire.
The annual Stig Dagerman Prize awards individuals who, like Dagerman, promote empathy and understanding through their work.
In 2023, the centenary of Stig Dagerman's birth was celebrated in Sweden with various events and staging of plays. In Stig Dagerman's native Älvkarleby a park was named after Dagerman and a statue of him was placed there.
De dömdas ö (Island of the Doomed) 1946, novel
Tysk höst (German Autumn), 1947, non-fictional account of post-war Germany
Nattens lekar (The Games of Night) 1947, a collection of short stories
Bränt barn (A Burnt Child, also translated as A Moth To a Flame) 1948, novel
Dramer om dömda: Den dödsdömde; Skuggan av Mart (Dramas of the Condemned: The Man Condemned to Death; Marty's Shadow) 1948, plays
Judas Dramer: Streber; Ingen går fri (Judas Dramas: No One Goes Free; The Climber) 1949, plays
Bröllopsbesvär (Wedding Worries) 1949, novel
Vårt behov av tröst (Our Need for Consolation is Insatiable) 1955, prose and poetry. Edited by O. Lagercrantz
German Autumn. Translation by Robin Fulton. Introduction by Mark Kurlansky. University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
Sleet: Selected Stories. Translation by Steven Hartman. Preface by Alice McDermott. David R. Godine, 2013.
A Burnt Child. Translation by Benjamin Mier-Cruz. Introduction by Per Olov Enquist. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.