Icelandic icon: former president Vigdis Finnbogadottir in a 1988 biography. A chance discovery.

As we all know, Iceland has got a new prime minister: Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66 (by the way: the first - openly - gay female chief-of-state in modern history and married to her companion jenina
since 2002). But Johanna is not the first Icelandic woman who served her country as a high profile politician: from 1980-1996, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, a former teacher of French,was the fourth president of Iceland and the first woman in the world in this position
ever.

One of these days, I came across a fine copy of a biography on Vigdis in Icelandic language: Ein Á Forsetavakt. Dagar í lífí Vigdísar Finnbogadóttur. The author is Steinunn Sigurdardottir (b. 1950), one of Iceland´s most prominent novelists and poets, who recently moved to Berlin. The fiction works of the studied psychologist and former broadcasting journalist are all focused on strong emotions, unfulfilled love and the grandioseness of the Icelandic landscape; most of here books were translated to English, French, German and other languages; the said biography - the only piece of work of this genre in Steinunn Sigurdardottir´s oeuvre - was a bestseller in the author´s native Iceland, published 1988 in several editions at Reykjavik Idunn publishing company (pp 173).

As I don´t speak Icelandic, I can´t tell you about the contents of the book, but can describe its lookings: the dustwrapper, with a large colored photo of the former president in her office, is in a very fine condition, so is the complete book, which is packed with official and private photos: they show a tall, slim, natural blonde lady who seems to have filled her position with a friendly and relaxed dignity in every respect: as a single mother of an adopted daughter, the longtime president of Iceland, similar to the new Icelandic prime minister of our days, was an early and unspectacular icon of women´s lib without making a big fuss about it. Vigdis Finnbogadottir is still active and works as a representative for the UNESCO; her special interest is the protection of landscape.

There is a large handwritten dedication in Icelandic on the endpaper, which is the only "damage" I could discover. I found the book - as I often do - in a local charity shop kept by the protestant church. And I wonder how this very special book found its way to this hidden place in a German city. Sometimes the mysterious and hidden story behind a book that comes my way makes me dreaming and pitching a tale;-); maybe good stuff for writing a book by myself:-).

Searching the internet, I found just one single copy of the book for sale -
in Iceland. German antiquarian booksellers offer biographies of Vigdis Finnbogadottir written in Icelandic language by different authors, but not this one. Who is interested in purchasing should contact me via e-mail.

Having this Icelandic book lying on my desk and looking at the very unique Icelandic letters, memory comes along and drives me kind of sentimental: bringing back my teenage years and the picture of a young boy with a cute accent, stiff-as-a-poker movements while doing the disco bump, wearing old-fashioned shirts and trousers and funny multicolored shoes. He robbed my heart and was destined to be my very first; and he was from Iceland; but this is another story to tell.

Please pardon the flaw quality of the photos: I´m a lousy photographer! p.1: in the presidential office; p.2: as a language student in Grenoble, France; p.3: riding a pony with daughter Astrid.

And Bogi, by the way, if you happen to pass this blog: yes, it´s you I´ve been talking about!