Henrik Schück

Henrik Schück (Johan Henrik Emil Schück, until 1871 Sjöberg; 2 November 1855 – 3 October 1947) was a Swedish literary and cultural historian, professor at Lund and Uppsala, rector of Uppsala University from 1 June 1905 to 31 May 1918, and a member of the Swedish Academy from 1913 who chaired the Nobel Foundation board for over a decade.^{1 • 2} Born in Stockholm's Klara parish to the wholesaler Adolf Henrik Schück and Laura Johanna Christina Sjöberg, he died in Stockholm at age 91.¹

Life and career

Schück enrolled at Uppsala in 1873, took his fil. kand. in 1878, fil. lic. in 1881, and doctorate and docentship in literary history in 1882; his dissertation treated the main currents in sixteenth-century English Renaissance literature.² He became docent at Uppsala on 8 May 1882, was called to Lund as professor of aesthetics, literature, and art history on 28 November 1890, and returned to Uppsala in the same chair on 22 January 1898.¹ In 1917 he moved to the dedicated chair in literary history with poetics, which he held until 2 November 1920, his sixty-fifth birthday.¹

As a student in spring 1880 he was an initiator of Svenska Litteratursällskapet in Uppsala, the society that still publishes the literary journal Samlaren.^{1 • 3}

Scholarship: works and method

The historical method. From his earliest research on Elizabethan culture and Shakespeare, Schück advocated a historical approach and rejected the aesthetics practiced on the German model with its demand for timelessness.⁴ As a literary historian he placed great weight on drawing the cultural-historical background of literary works, and less on aesthetic analysis.³ His comparative method produced vivid characterizations of major Swedish authors from Birgitta to Almqvist and Runeberg, with emphasis on the interplay of life and poetry and on literature's social background.² A 1995 Uppsala university-history essay, "Mannen som var en akademi", portrays him as a learning giant spanning history of science, history of ideas, and literary history, noting his aversion to aesthetics and fondness for historical method.

The literary histories. His Svensk litteraturhistoria, issued in fascicles 1885–90 and covering the Middle Ages and the Reformation, was a pioneering work built on his own fresh research; it must still often be consulted because it contains much material not taken up in later revisions.² With Karl Warburg he co-authored Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria, writing the first volume (1896); in the third edition, published 1926–1932 in seven volumes, he entirely rewrote the parts Warburg had written, so the finished work is considered essentially his and his foremost.^{2 • 5} (The third edition is also given as six volumes, 1926–30; the digitization record of the actual set gives seven volumes, 1926–32.^{3 • 5}) He also wrote the six-volume overview Allmän litteraturhistoria (1919–26).³ In Sveriges litteratur intill 1900 (2 vols, 1935) he treated modern Swedish literature for the only time, including a sharp, somewhat coarse portrait of Strindberg.²

Special studies and institutional history. His major monographs include Studier i nordisk litteratur- och religionshistoria (1–2, 1904), Studier i Ynglingatal (1905–10), a biography of Petrus de Dacia (1916), Lars Wivallius (1893–95), Messenius (1920), Petter Forsskål (1923), Lars Salvius (1929), Johan Hadorph (1933) and Elis Schröderheim (1942).² His Shakespeare biography of 1883–84 was reworked as Shakespeare och hans tid (2 vols, 1916), and his Gustaf III appeared in 1904.^{2 • 3 • 4} The eight-volume essay series Ur gamla papper ran 1892–1908.³ Late in life he wrote Svenska akademiens historia (1–7, 1935–39), a monograph on the Royal Vitterhetsakademien in eight volumes to 1837 (1932–44), Den svenska förlagsbokhandelns historia (1–2, 1923) and Stockholm vid 1400-talets slut (1940).² With Oscar Levertin he edited Svenska memoarer och bref, volumes 1–8, 1900–1904.¹

His enormous output is described as without parallel in Swedish humanistic research, extended into purely historical areas, and was continued by a series of students.³

Rector of Uppsala University

Schück served as rector magnificus of Uppsala University from 1 June 1905 to 31 May 1918, thirteen years.¹

Swedish Academy and the Nobel Prize

The blocked election of 1904. His starkly realistic 1904 portrait of Gustaf III caused C. D. af Wirsén to provoke a royal veto that prevented Schück's already-decided election to the Swedish Academy; he was finally elected in 1913.^{2 • 4}

Nobel roles. He sat on the Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee from 1921 to 1937 and served as the Academy's ombudsman from 1921 to 1945.¹ He was a member of the Nobel Foundation's board from 1918 to 1943 and its chairman from 1918 to 1929.¹

By the numbers

• 13 years as rector of Uppsala (1905–1918).¹
• 34 years in the Swedish Academy (1913–1947).^{4 • 1}
• 25 years on the Nobel Foundation board (1918–1943), the first 11 as chairman.¹
• 7 volumes of Svenska akademiens historia (1935–39), 7 volumes of the final Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria (1926–32), and 8 volumes of Ur gamla papper (1892–1908).^{2 • 3 • 5}

References

1. Schück, Johan Henrik Emil, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (Riksarkivet)
2. Schück, Johan Henrik Emil, Svenska män och kvinnor, band 6 (Projekt Runeberg)
3. Henrik Schück, Store norske leksikon
4. Henrik Schück, Nationalencyklopedins uppslagsverk
5. Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria, Projekt Runeberg

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Biographers, critics, and specialist non-fiction writers › Biographers and historians

Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026

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