1872 - 2012 - A Star is born
A legend that is still much alive and thriving was born in the offices at 52 Broadway in New York City: At noon on Saturday, September 21, 1872, the first issue of America’s Swedish newspaper, Nordstjernan, appeared on newsstands in the Manhattan district of New York. J.P. Hollers was its first editor-in-chief and Carl Nordell the first business manager.
When Nordstjernan published its first issue, Ulysses S. Grant, the victorious Union military commander from the American Civil War, was in the last weeks of campaigning for what would be his reelection to a second term as 18th president of the United States. Meanwhile, in Sweden, crop failures were forcing families whose ancestors had tilled the soil for hundreds of years to flee famine and certain annihilation.
Before Nordstjernan celebrated its first ten years of publishing, more than 4,000 Swedes a month were arriving at the docks in New York. A few made golden fortunes and sailed triumphantly back home to Sweden. Others put down roots and sent money home for other family members to join them. Passenger traffic statistics on emigrants from Gothenburg from January-July 1880 show that 26,410 departed to the U.S., while only 383 returned to Sweden.
As Swedish immigrants arrived by the shipload daily, the need for a publication to serve them became clear. Thus, the Svenska Tryckföreningen i New York began publishing Nordstjernan. It sold on newsstands each Saturday for six cents per copy, or $3.00 per annual subscription (later reduced to $2.00 per year and five cents per copy after reader protests). In that day, a salary of about $25 per month was considered respectable for the average worker.
The fact that all articles were in the Swedish language indicates that most readers hadn’t become comfortable with English. Each issue of Nordstjernan was only four pages, and about one third was advertising. With space tight, significant news items were seldom more than a paragraph long. Presumably, international events were no longer as important to Nordstjernan’s readers as the notices from the Royal Household, deaths, ship sailings and even unclaimed letters, which were listed by the New York post office and held for Swedes to fetch. This service continued well into the twentieth century.
Over time, Nordstjernan’s format evolved into a reliable weekly assortment of vital information, news of Sweden and America, thought-provoking political and social commentary and, in what comprised a good portion of each issue, serialized novels. Rather than act as a platform for deep discussion and debate in the Swedish American community, one of the paper’s most important roles was entertaining its readers.
It’s all about the people
The Svenska Tryckeriföreningen i New York was a group of immigrant families: Among the early investors were local businessmen Sven Rydén, Isak Edenborg, Andrew Lefvrén, Martin Nilson and Håkan Johansen. Johansen, an immigrant watchmaker from Kalmar, secured sole ownership of Nordstjernan around 1879, and it would remain under Johansen reign for three generations. Håkan’s son Charles took over in 1897. Charlie K, as he was generally known, was the only one of the Johansen owners who devoted his entire life to the newspaper, and he did so quite successfully. JP Hollers faithfully stayed on as editor until his death in 1891, succeeded by Vilhelm Hallander, later Vilhelm Berger and later still, in 1910 or 1911, by the Swedish-American author Ernst Skarstedt, who previously had edited the San Francisco paper Vestkusten (since 2007 incorporated with Nordstjernan).
For nearly half of Nordstjernan’s 140 years, there was one man who maintained the ties between those who migrated from Sweden and those who remained in the old country: Gerhard Theodore Rooth. Rooth, known to everyone as “Gerry,” joined the paper in the late 1920s as sportswriter and assistant to the editor. He went on to found Swedish-American groups and welcome illustrious Swedes visiting the U.S. for over half a century. With his enthusiasm and outgoing personality, he rightly deserved the title he earned over the years, “Mr. Swedish American.”
During the many years of his work with Nordstjernan, he hosted hundreds of Swedish groups in the U.S. and escorted hundreds of Americans to Sweden. It was jokingly noted that those who knew Gerry were familiar with four major Swedish cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö — and Surahammar. For it was in that middle Swedish industrial city that Gerry first saw the light of day, and to which he returned whenever possible. He was master of ceremonies for the Swedish presentations at the New York World Fairs in 1939 and 1964 and at the first Sweden Day in 1941 and for many years thereafter. In 1953 he bought Nordstjernan from George Johansen, son of Charles K. and the third-generation Johansen with the paper.
1972 was an important year for Nordstjernan, as it celebrated its 100th anniversary with Princess Christina as a guest, and for Gerry himself as he was chosen “Swedish American of the Year.” Gerry transferred ownership to a stock company, Swedish News, Inc., and he became Editor Emeritus, still writing about sports and his many other interests. His love of Sweden as well as Swedish America, his joy in people, his devotion to his family, and his deep feeling for Nordstjernan continued until his passing in June 1983.
Nordstjernan would not have existed if it weren’t for the efforts in the 1970s and 1980s by iconic personalities like Gerry, who left the reigns to Gunnar Björkman as publisher, and Alvalene and T. Edward “TEK” Karlsson as editors, in 1973. Björkman left his position in 1986 but Alvalene would continue on for several years, for the last ten alongside Ulf. She remained a popular weekly columnist until her passing in 2005.
Ulf Barslund Mårtensson first became involved with the newspaper in 1985, a little over 1,200 issues of Nordstjernan ago, as Swedish News Inc. issued new shares to ensure a smooth transition to new production techniques and to meet the demands of a rapidly changing publishing industry.
Since taking up full residency and later becoming naturalized citizens, Ulf and Mette have worked to insure the newspaper’s and the services of Nordstjernan Swedish News’s survival into the 21st century. Supporting every single institution and group in Swedish America by supplying a platform to reach larger groups of Swedish-Americans and Americans with an interest in the Nordic region and Sweden: First through Nordstjernan, which started publishing books again in 1997, later through the quarterly Nordic Reach Magazine and today through digital issues of all of the periodicals, through a long list of social media and other channels, including film and video documentaries and a digital newsletter aptly named Sweden Today.
Electronic work platforms and a long list of part time stringers and colleagues have enabled Nordstjernan to once again become a true heart of the Swedish-American universe. We are proud to say that at no point in its history has Nordstjernan touched as many hearts and minds as it does today.
Ulf Barslund Martensson
Editor & Publisher, Nordstjernan
Covering presidents and kings, notables from John Ericsson to Ann-Margaret; from Charles Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing to Buzz Aldrin’s setting foot on the moon; from the Swedish-American colony in Jerusalem to the Great Depression, Prohibition and World Wars, Nordstjernan has covered it all, with over 7,000 issues through 140 years of continuous publishing and is today the only remaining Swedish-American classic periodical, out of the over 1,500 that once existed.
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The Editor & Publisher
Inte som andra bloggar.... this entry will be sometimes in Swedish, sometimes 'på svenska' - Just så händelsrikt är livet som utgivare av Amerikas äldsta och numera enda Svenska tidskrift.
Här ovan poserar jag “on location” kl 6 på morgonen i Minneapolis St. Paul för två år sedan. Henrik Olund tog bilden som förberedelse för en porträttbild av Vice President Walter Mondale. (Det var en bra intervju med en bra person) Jag skriver sällan med byline i Nordstjernan men jag är alltid ansvarig för innehållet, även om jag inte alltid håller med om allt.
(PS. Intervjun med Mondale hittar ni på nordicreach.com DS.) |