poet, prose writer, and critic, belatedly recognized as one of the most original of modern Swedish writers.

Of peasant stock, Hansson celebrated in Dikter (1884; “Poems”) and Notturno (1885) the natural beauty and folkways of his native Skåne. The influence of contemporary psychology led him to produce Sensitiva Amorosa (1887), a collection of morbid, erotic sketches that shocked the Sweden of his day. He was embittered by their reception, and he lived abroad from 1889 in Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey. His later works reflect his admiration for Nietzsche and the Pan-Germanist Julius Langbehn.