This FDC given to me by Maria and postmarked on 1.8.1975 commemorates Stephan G. Stephansson (October 3, 1853 – August 10, 1927), who was a Western Icelander, poet, and farmer.
His original name was Stefán
Guðmundur Guðmundsson.
He was born in Skagafjorour, Iceland but emigrated to Wisconsin, USA in
1873, at age 19. In 1889 he moved to Markerville, Red Deer County, Alberta, Canada. He
did not see Iceland again until 1917, when he was 64 years old.
Stephan
was self-educated and worked hard all his life. He wrote after work, and, being
an insomniac, he often wrote till dawn. He was under the influence of the American writer Ralph
Waldo Emerson and
they shared the same beliefs in many matters, including, but not limited to,
equal rights for men and women. Stephan wrote only in Icelandic and
had great influence in his former home country.
His poems were published in a six
volume book called "Andvökur" (Sleepless Nights).
His letters and essays were
published in four volumes, and even if nothing of his poetry had survived,
those would have been enough to single him out as one of Iceland's foremost men
of letters.
His homestead near Markerville is
an Alberta Provincial Historic Site. It has been restored and is open to the
public from May 15 until August 31.
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