Beyond Winnetou. A glimpse at Swedish children´s book author Stig Ericson and his Native American Adventures.

Germans love books dealing with the Native Americans. Most of us grew up with the leatherstockings tales and struggled through the not always light-hearted to read matter; same thing with the very German "Western novels" by Saxonian trash author Karl May, which have been loved and read for decades. For generations of readers, the picture of American Indian and Western frontier life and history was coined by Karl May, who also wrote widely popular adventure novels setted in the Arabian lands. To tell the truth, in our time, young readers no longer reach as avidly as their parents and grandparents for those tomes. But Karl May is a still beloved author for the "mature youth" who stick to the lost days of boyish reading adventures guided by brave and noble Apache chief Winnetou and his blue-eyed German "blood brother" Old Shatterhand; as for the young ones, only for Carnival Winnetou returns.......

Apart from those kitschy and pseudo-heroic Karl May novels and the Germans running "wild for Winnetou",
children´s books dealing with "authentic" Native American life conquered our book market in the 1960s and 1970s: most of these books had a pubiscient young hero who went through lots of exciting and educating adventures on his way to adulthood; in conflict with "red" traditions and the challenges of "white" civilisation, the boys are to recognize their mission. These "political correct" books, mostly written by former teachers (most of them women), were superpopular among children´s librarians and elementary school teachers; they especially boomed during the 1980s with their strong attitude towards "green" and peace movement politics: it was the time when almost every single environmentally picked German university student had this notorious Cree prophecy stuck to his car or bag; the most successful German "Indianerbuch" of this period was Fliegender Stern (Flying Star) by children´s book author and former teacher Ursula Woelfel; the book is still read at school (so did my children) and is available in many new and used copies at Amazon Marketplace.

Among those many European children´s book authors who used - and in a way abused - Native American affairs as a scenography for their own purposes following a fashion, was Swedish jazz musician, teacher and journalist Stig Ericson, who started a second career in writing. The native of Stockholm, who 1970 was awarded with the Nils Holgersson plaketten, a Swedish national literary award named after a famous work of fiction by Selma Lagerlöf, gained popularity with his children´s books setted in the wild, wild West. In Sweden, children´s radio shows based on "Western" plots by Stig Ericson are still aired; Stig Ericson died 1986 at age 57. Further information on this once widely read Swedish children´s book author is not available on the internet.

In Germany, the author never gained the popularity as a teller of "Indian stories" for children like in his native Sweden. "Abenteuer der Weissen Feder" (White Feather´s adventures), first published in Swedish in 1971 (in German 1972), was one of his biggest successes. The book is still read and can be found at German children´s libraries and at Amazon marketplace,
of course, mostly in 1990s editions; the copy I have in store is a rare one and from the 1st edition of the German translation: as far as I know the only copy of this edition offered via internet not from a public library, as Eurobuch tells you. (Suppose the book was highly esteemed among librarians and teachers, but not among parents and children;-)).

A first class chance for the avid children´s book collector to buy a fine book for his private wigwam;-).