August Hjalmar Edgren

August Hjalmar Edgren (October 18, 1840 – December 9, 1903) was a Swedish-American linguist, professor, and author.

Background August Hjalmar Edgren was born in Östanås, Älvsbacka parish in Värmland, Sweden. He was the son of Axel Edgren (1813–1864) and Mathilda Berger (1817–1878). He was educated in Karlstad and Stockholm. He was a graduate of the University of Uppsala and the royal military school of Sweden. Edgren passed the officer's exam in Stockholm in 1860, and subsequently served during the American Civil War in the Union Army, where he entered the 99th New York Regiment as 2d lieutenant in January 1862. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, and in August 1863 he was assigned to the engineer corps. In the beginning of the 1870s Edgren returned to the United States, where he studied at Cornell University and Yale University.

Career Hjalmar Edgren divided his professional career between Sweden and the United States. He was a teacher of languages in Riverview Academy in 1871/2, instructor in French, German, and Sanskrit in Yale from 1874 until 1880, and lecturer in Sanskrit in the University of Lund, Sweden, from 1880 until 1884, when he became professor of modern languages and Sanskrit at the University of Nebraska.

Personal life Works Edgren wrote numerous books, including a report of the author's travels in Mexico. He also authored books of grammar in German, French, Italian, Spanish and Sanskrit. Among his publications are a German and English Dictionary, with Prof. W. D. Whitney (New York and London, 1877); and works in Swedish on The Literature of America (Göteborg, 1878), The Public Schools and Colleges of the United States (Upsala, 1879), Swedish Literature in America (Sweden, 1883) and American Antiquities (1885).

Other sources Benson, Adolph B & Naboth Hedin Swedes in America 1638-1938 (New Haven, 1938) Lindquist, Emory: An Immigrant's Two Worlds, a Biography of Hjalmar Edgren (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana Historical Society. 1972)