Claes Andersson

Claes Andersson (Helsinki, 1937-2019) was a Finnish poet, psychiatrist, musician and politician who wrote in Swedish. Part of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, he is remembered above all as a poet within the social poetry current, though his career also took in medicine, literary criticism and parliamentary work.

He studied medicine at the University of Helsinki and qualified as a psychiatrist in 1969. He worked in hospitals in Helsinki and at the Veikkola sanatorium, and from 1974 practised at the mental health office in Loviisa. His literary debut came in 1962 with the collection Ventil (Valve). From 1965 he reviewed books for several publications and edited the journal FBT. He chaired the Society of Swedish Authors in Finland and wrote poetry, novels and plays, including Samhället vi dör i (1967) and Trädens sånger (1979).

His poetry belongs to the social poetry tradition, looking at the life of his time from a left-leaning perspective, and the same commitment led him into the Finnish Parliament for the Left Alliance and the Finnish People's Democratic League, in the periods 1987-1999 and 2007-2008. He also served as Minister of Culture in the first Lipponen cabinet. His influence endures mainly in Finland's Swedish-language literature, where his work holds a distinct place.