Published in 1967, ‘Flight of the Eagle’ (Swedish: ‘Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd’) is a novel by Swedish author Per Olof Sundman that won the ‘Nordic Council Literature Prize‘ in 1968. Sundman was originary of Vaxholm, where he became politically active in the Centre Party, which he represented in the Swedish parliament from 1969 to 1979. His debut as a writer was in 1957, and his best period was during the 1960s, when he published several highly recognised documentary novels, written in an objective, recording style, leaving moral judgment to the reader. ‘Ingenjör Andrées Luftfärd’ describes a 1897 poorly prepared expedition to the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon that led to a disastrous end for the three participants: Salomon August Andrée, and his friends Nils Strindberg and Knut Frænkel. In 1930, their remains were found on Vitön along with the remnants of their equipment, that included diaries and filmed material: Per Olof Sundman studied the remaining material in detail, and then started writing, using Knut Frænkel as the narrator of the novel. Salomon August Andrée is described as a cynical dreamer so swept up in society’s desire for sensations and his own obsessions that he fails to realise the hopelessness of the project. According to the Adjudicating Committee the novel “combines strong internal and external tension with a singularly objective poetry.”
