The law requiring all children in Sweden to learn to read and write was not in existence until 1842. The knowledge and myths surrounding America could effectively be spread due to the fact that more and more Swedes were able to read books and newspapers. But Johanna never learned to read or write. According to Professor Beijbom in his book about Vilhelm Moberg, "She had to visit a neighbor in order to get letters written to her children and return to the neighbors to hear the answers read aloud." Moberg's class But it was the Johanna of reality who yearned and yearned. Not for a return to Duvemåla, like Kristina, but for her children to return home to Duvemåla. It was Johanna who usually said, "To accompany one's children to the station as they embark towards America is like accompanying them to the grave." Moberg assigns these lines in The Emigrants to Karl Oskar's father, though it is Kristina from Duvemåla who hears them. And it is she who personifies Johanna's lifelong yearning. So closely did Vilhelm Moberg balance his stories with reality that the citizens of his childhood area in Småland actually protested his description of them. And in fact in 1951 an appeal was organized by, among others, the villagers of Algutsboda protesting that their ancestors were characterized as "filthy buggers and immoral people." The appeal is preserved. It hangs on a wall in the Moberg Room in The House of Emigrants in Växjö. This infuriated Vilhelm Moberg and he became disappointed with his fellow Smålandsmen. He claimed stubbornly his moral right to, as they said in his childhood, "rimtera" (concoct stories). He said that he "wrote to satisfy his curiosity." Moberg room The Emigrant house Moberg studied the Swedish emigrants thoroughly before he began the work of describing them. Between 1947 and 1959, for twelve entire years, he labored at his artistic task. The work on The Emigrants books unequivocally changed Moberg's life. He rewrote his novels' 2,100 pages three times. Each part exists in five versions. His body of research forms the foundation of his literary volumes. And indeed it met the requirements for a Ph.D. thesis on emigration and his authorship, which was written by Gunnar Eidevall much later and was published in 1974. In connection with the research of The Emigrants novels Vilhelm Moberg finally arrived in America. He traveled there for the first time in 1948 with his family. For many years he became something of a rambler, though never an emigrant or an immigrant. He journeyed from Sweden many times but always returned. The author Vilhelm Moberg died in 1973. The 100th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in the summer of 1998. The sculptor Oliver Weerasinghe, who lives in Limhamn outside Malmö, was commissioned five years ago to execute a bust of the author. The monument shall be situated outside the entrance of The House of Emigrants, also celebrating a 30 year jubilee, in Växjö and was dedicated on the 20th of August, the writer's birthday. Summer 1998 Last page The Musical | Background | Interactive guide | Merchandise | Downloadables | Swedish