KELLGREN, JOHAN HENRIK

born Dec. 1, 1751, Floby, Swed. died April 20, 1795, Stockholm poet considered the greatest literary figure of the Swedish Enlightenment and once called Sweden's national good sense. A talented young man, Kellgren soon found his way to the court of Gustav III. For some time he acted as private secretary to the king, who appointed him one of the first members of the Swedish Academy when it was founded in 1786. Kellgren's earliest works, erotic poems, appeared in 1773, but he won fame with the satiric poem Mina ljen (1778; My Laughter). In the 1780s he wrote a number of verse dramas on themes suggested by Gustav. This collaboration culminated in Gustaf Wasa (1786), a successful patriotic opera. The following year he wrote what is considered his greatest poem, Den Nya Skapelsen, eller inbillningensvrld (1790; The New Creation, or the World of the Imagination), in which he exalts the power of the imagination while describing a rich experience of romantic love. From 1778 until the time of his death, Kellgren was associated with the influential literary journal Stockholmsposten, which he edited in the years 178084 and 178895. He used his literary skills to attack superstition and criticize a broad array of social vices.