Waldemar Hammenhög

Per Waldemar Hammenhög (18 April 1902 – 1 November 1972) was a Swedish writer and novelist. Writing more than 40 novels, Hammenhög is probably best known for Pettersson & Bendel, a humorous novel adapted twice to screen. Hammenhög worked as an office boy, He left his job as a clerk after he was awarded first-prize in a novel competition organized by the Stockholm-based publishing house Natur & Kultur with his debut novel Esther och Albert.

Among Hammenhög's writing highlights is the humorous novel Petterson & Bendel (1931), adapted to screen in 1933 starring Adolf Jahr as Pettersson; and as P&B (1983) starring Stellan Skarsgård as Petterson and Allan Edwall as Bendel. Esther och Alberts äktenskap (1936) was also a success, adapted to screen as Ung man söker sällskap (1954), starring Ulf Palme and Gaby Stenberg.

In the late 1940s, Hammenhög's writing turned from realistic humor towards moral issues as he was struggling with personal alcoholism. His writing reached a turning point with Torken (1951), a novel about the failure of traditional alcoholic care. The novel is sometimes regarded as Hammenhög's second breakthrough as a novelist. Later in life, Hammenhög became a "sober alcoholic".