I varje generation har unga människor med konstnärliga och litterära ambitioner sökt sig till Paris. De flesta har glömt ambitionerna och förälskat sig i staden och i varann. Nu är det femtiotal och Frankrike har just förlorat kriget i Indokina och bytt det kriget mot ett annat, det som kallas Algerietkriget. Det tror jag är bakgrunden till att vi utländska ungdomar kunde isolera oss så pass mycket som vi gjorde från Paris vardag och förälska oss i ett Paris som egentligen inte fanns, men vi fanns ju och ingen och inget kunde hindra oss från att förälska oss i varann och i oss själva. Med kriget som bakgrund hade vi bråttom, för förr eller senare skulle någon stormakt ta till atombomben av den enkla anledningen att man lovat varann att inte ta till den. Förälskelse kunde övergå i kärlek och några av oss trodde att man kunde svika kärleken. Det kan man inte. /Stig Claesson
Author
John Stig Claesson, also known under his signature Slas, was a Swedish writer, visual artist, and illustrator. Claesson was born on 2 June 1928 in Huddinge, south of Stockholm. He attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts between 1947 and 1952, during which time he began to illustrate Swedish literature such as the novels of Per Anders Fogelström. Claesson was the father of actor Leif Claesson. Claesson debuted in his writing career in 1956, when he was 28 years of age. During his career Claesson published more than 80 books. A number of his books are based on travel abroad and move in the frontier between reporting and fiction. Among his best-known works include En vandring i solen (Walking in the Sun, 1976), which was made into a film with Gösta Ekman in the role of the main character. Claesson provided works about the remote and rural regions of Sweden and describe the conflict between the town and the country in books such as Vem älskar Yngve Frej (1968; Who loves Yngve Frej), which was translated into 10 languages and was filmed for television in 1973 starring Allan Edwall. A stage adaption was created in the 1990s. His last book was God Natt Fröken Ann (Goodnight, Miss Ann), published in 2006. Stig Claesson's work has received many awards, such as the literature prize of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and the Selma Lagerlöf Prize. The University of Uppsala awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in 1974. The elder Claesson died on 4 January 2008 in Stockholm.
