AUTHOR
If it is true that humour derives from the recognition of our own limitations, then it is one of the saving graces of we Danes that we have made Benny Andersen into our national bard. He is not only the most widely read, most often sung and best loved of modern Danish lyricists -- over 80,000 copies of his Samlede digte (Collected Poems) (1998) sold to date, not counting the most popular of all his texts: his songs about that melancholic character, Svante, recorded with the singer Povl Dissing, bought by over 200,000 Danes and heard by many more. Benny Andersen is also, and more particularly, the Danes’ own fond and ironic portraitist who, with his wry way of looking at things and his convoluted wordplay, shows us ourselves for what we are, pinpoints our limitations and our self-delusion and helps us to discover the inherent potential of language and of life.
(by Anders Østergaard)
For more complete information, please visit the Danish Authors website at Litteraturnet
Works by Benny Andersen from Curbstone Press:
