A well-known proletarian writer who gained fame after World War I was Vilhelm Moberg between 19, he wrote the four-book series The Emigrants (Swedish: Utvandrarna), often considered one of the best literary works from Sweden. The early 20th century continued to produce notable authors, such as Selma Lagerlöf ( Nobel laureate 1909) and Pär Lagerkvist (Nobel laureate 1951). In the 1900s, one of the earliest novelists was Hjalmar Söderberg. In Sweden, the period starting in 1880 is known as realism because the writing had a strong focus on social realism. Some key figures include Georg Stiernhielm (17th century), who was the first to write classical poetry in Swedish Johan Henric Kellgren (18th century), the first to write fluent Swedish prose Carl Michael Bellman (late 18th century), the first writer of burlesque ballads and August Strindberg (late 19th century), a socio-realistic writer and playwright who won worldwide fame.

With improved education and the freedom brought by secularisation, the 17th century saw several notable authors develop the Swedish language further. This translation is the so-called Gustav Vasa Bible. Swedish literature only flourished after the Swedish literary language was developed in the 16th century, which was largely due to the full translation of the Christian Bible into Swedish in 1541. Therefore, there are only a few texts in the Old Swedish from that period. With the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages, during which monastic writers preferred to use Latin. The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. Swedish literature ( Swedish: Svensk litteratur) refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.

All My Sons by Christer Kihlman