A question for the Swedish members

Stefan Diös pyas at swipnet.se
Tue Mar 15 15:54:48 CET 2005


Niels Houlberg Hansen:

>In the early issues of the Danish "Anders And & Co." it says that the text 
>has been translated and edited by a wellknown Danish professor. Likewise, 
>a teacher/writer of children's books is credited as translator/editor in 
>the Norwegian "Donald Duck & Co."
>
>Could you tell me if it says in the early issues of "Kalle Anka & Co." 
>that they were approved/edited/translated/guaranteed by a Swedish 
>educationalist/writer/professor?


Yes, indeed. It seems the Swedish editors were just as wary about being 
regarded as "bad influence for children", as many comics were at this time, 
so they made great efforts to find some reliable name as a translator. They 
found Axel Norbeck, who did the job from 1948 to 1957. He was a 
schoolteacher and "library consultant" in Gothenburg, who spent many years 
of his professional career in the early-to-mid-20th century developing 
school libraries all over Sweden (even helping out in the rest of 
Scandinavia), as well as working tirelessly for better children's 
literature - writing books and articles for educationalists, compiling and 
translating story books, and so on.

The Kalle Anka job came late in life for Norbeck, close to and beyond his 
retirement. But I'm sure he was one of the more prominent names of his time 
regarding childrens' literature and education, and the editors were proud 
to have him. The early Kalle Anka magazines usually contained an assurance, 
as if to guarantee quality, that the drawings were made by "Walt Disney, 
the world-famous artist" (!) and the text translated and adapted by "the 
well-known Swedish educationalist and school-master, Axel Norbeck". 
(Swedish: "Den kände svenske pedagogen, magister Axel Norbeck".)

When Norbeck retired, the editors advertised for a replacement. They chose 
Per Anders Westrin, a student of psychology and education at Lund 
University. His wife, Maibrit, was a language scholar, and they jointly 
wrote the Kalle Anka dialogue for 24 years, along with their successful 
academic careers. Maibrit didn't want her name credited, but the editors 
always proudly published Per Anders' academic degree next to his name and 
also, now and then, put in a special announcement that their texts were 
being written by an established university lecturer.

Now, sadly, all that is deteriorating... we have no longer any such 
academic brilliance behind the weekly translations, just a plain old 
Donaldist... ;-)

There is an article (in Swedish) about Axel Norbeck in the 1953, Book 1, 
collection of Kalle Anka & C:o facsimile reprints; and one about the 
Westrins in 1957, Book 4.


Stefan Diös
Stockholm / Malmö, Sweden





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