Per Waldemar Hammenhög was a Swedish writer and novelist. The trivial, petty bourgeoisurban environment forms the basis of many of his early realistic novels, whereas his later works turned towards religious and moral issues. Writing more than 40 novels, Hammenhög is probably best known for Pettersson & Bendel, a humorous novel adapted twice to screen.
Life and work
Born in Stockholm in 1902 as Waldemar Anderson, he was the son of foreman Per Anderson and his wife Lydia Källgren. After graduating from the Högre realläroverket å Östermalmhigh school in Stockholm in 1919, Hammenhög worked as an office boy, and later office clerk until 1930. He left his job as a clerk after he was awarded first-prize in a novel competition organized by the Stockholm-based publishing houseNatur & Kultur with his debut novelEstheroch Albert. He submitted the text under the pseudonym "Hammenhög", which became his official name in 1931. Among Hammenhög's writing highlights is the humorous novel Petterson & Bendel, adapted to screen in 1933 starring Adolf Jahr as Pettersson; and as P&B starring Stellan Skarsgård as Petterson and Allan Edwall as Bendel. Esther och Alberts äktenskap was also a success, adapted to screen as Ung man söker sällskap, starring Ulf Palme and Gaby Stenberg. In the late 1940s, Hammenhög's writing turned from realistic humor towards moral issues as he was struggling with personal alcoholism. His writing reached a turning point with Torken, a novel about the failure of traditional alcoholic care. The novel is sometimes regarded as Hammenhög's second breakthrough as a novelist. A year later, Hammenhög publishedOmne animal, a novel which implied that Hammenhög was heading toward Roman Catholicism. Most novels that followed often focused on religious and moral issues.
Hammenhög's early commercial success as a productive novelist led to an extravagant lifestyle, and severe alcoholism. For years, alcoholic problems influenced his writing which was largely devastated by superficiality and haste. Later in life, Hammenhög became a "sober alcoholic". In that capacity, he frequently spoke in public about issues related to his alcoholism. Writing in newspapers, his signature was W H-g. Hammenhög died in Stockholm in 1972 at the age of 70. He is buried at the Roman Catholic Cemetery, a part of the Norra begravningsplatsen Cemetery in Solna Municipality north of Stockholm.
