Heidenstam, Verner von

Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was born on the small Olshammar estate on the northern shore of Lake Vättern in Hammar, Örebro County, but the family spent most of the year in Stockholm. Heidenstam’s father, Nils Gustaf von Heidenstam, was an army officer who spent most of his time designing lighthouses. In his posthumously published memoirs, När kastanjerna blommade (1941), Heidenstam wrote that the landscape of his childhood had been vital for his fertile imagination and the great importance he attributed to his background and his family’s past.