Partner Kerstin Bjärkstedt
Queer Places:
Skogskyrkogården
Enskede, Stockholms kommun, Stockholms län, Sweden
Birgitta Alma Sofia Stenberg (26 April 1932 – 23 August 2014) was a Swedish author, translator and illustrator. She was the 2005 winner of the
Selma Lagerlöf Prize.
Stenberg lived in Åstol, Sweden and she was openly bisexual.[31] In 1974, she married Håkan Lagergren (1934–91).[32] In 2012, Stenberg remarried Kerstin Bjärkstedt (born 1953).[33] Stenberg died at her home in Smedsbolet, Gullspång Municipality, Västra Götaland County from hepatic cancer on 23 August 2014.[34]
Birgitta Stenberg was born in Engelbrekt Parish in 1932. She was educated in Visby and finally in Paris. Stenberg spent a lot of time in southern Europe improving her language skills.[1] In the early 1950s, she lived in Paris, Rome and on the French Riviera, experiences that inspired her book, Kärlek i Europa (Love in Europe), which detailed her various sexual adventures.[2] The book was later translated into English as Manplay in Europe.
For a time, she was the mistress of the Mafiosi Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who had been deported from the United States back to his native Italy.[3] Through Luciano Stenberg met his friend, the exiled King Farouk of Egypt, who was living in Italy and whose mistress she ultimately became.[6] Stenberg lived in a Rome apartment with a gay American couple, which enraged the homophobic Farouk as he called her roommates "perverts" once he learned that the two men were more than just friends.[13] In the face of his rage, Stenberg did not dare tell Farouk that she was bisexual, fearing that would upset him even more. At Farouk's insistence, she moved into the Villa Dusmet that he rented outside of Rome to get her away from her "pervert" gay American friends.[14]
She became a Swedish author, translator and illustrator. Stenberg was, during the early 1950s, a part of the literary assembly Metamorfosgruppen. She wrote the script for the film Raskenstam. During the Cold War in the 1950s, Stenberg was named secretary of the Swedish department of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and editor for Kulturkontakt which was founded by the CIA under the cover name of Ford Foundation.[20][21]
Stenberg's first novel Fritt förfall was refused by Bonnier Group in 1952 due to the novels "lack of literary quality". According to the authour herself, the publishing house was put off by the novels controversial lesbian motive.[22] The novel was published in 2008 by Normal publishers.[23] Stenberg later wrote an autobiographical suit that deals with sex, drugs and art making, starting with Kärlek i Europa in 1981[24] and continuing with Apelsinmannen (1983), Spanska trappan (1987) and Alla vilda (2004). In 2009, she argued for the legalization of cannabis during the live studio news show Rapport.[25] Stenberg's first published novel was Mikael och Poeten in 1956.[26] The novel dealt with the Kejne Affair, a topic that is further explored in the later work Apelsinmannen.[27] She worked at the radio interception at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs,[28] as a journalist at the magazine Arbetaren (The Worker), as an interpreter, fisherman and local politician for the Left Party.[29][30]
My published books:
