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A series of images from the UAB Archives
Name Ernest A. Forssgren Papers
Dates 1922-1965
Extent .33 cubic foot
Historical Note Ernest Albin Forssgren was born in northern Sweden on June 9, 1894, the sixth of twelve children born to Jonas Petter Forssgren and Karin Kristina Lundin.  He eventually immigrated to France and there briefly served as a valet to the French novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922).  In 1915 Forssgren left war-torn Europe and traveled to the United States, arriving in New York in April.  He obtained positions similar to those he had held in Europe and remained in New York City until 1923 when he moved west to Los Angeles, California.  In 1928 Forssgren petitioned for naturalization as an American citizen and this was granted soon afterward.  Eventually, Forssgren became a real estate broker in Los Angeles.  In the mid- to late-1960s, Forssgren composed a memoir of his early life and his time working in the Proust household.  Ernest Albin Forssgren, Proust's Swedish valet, died in Santa Cruz, California, on November 28, 1970.  He never married.

In 2006 Dr. William C. Carter, a long-time member of the UAB faculty and a recognized expert on Marcel Proust, published Forssgren's life story as The Memoirs of Ernest A. Forssgren, Proust's Swedish Valet.
Scope and Contents Nine items including a typescript memoir, a telegram, photographs, several documents, and two published monographs
Arrangement None
Accession Number M2014-17
Provenance Donated to UAB in 2001 by Marilyn M. Gordon and originally housed in the Mervyn Sterne Library with the Proust letters (MC123).  Upon administrative merger of Sterne and Lister Hill Library in 2014, the collection was transferred to the UAB Archives.
Copyright The UAB Archives maintains its proprietary rights to all material in this collection; the current holder of the copyrights is unknown.
Fnding Aid Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available in repository.
Access Points Forssgren, Ernest A.,  d  1894-1970.
Proust, Marcel,  d  1871-1922.
Proust, Marcel,  d  1871-1922  x  Friends and associates.
Document Types Correspondence, typescript, monographs, photographs
Location Manuscript Stacks
Related Series PMC124, Forssgren Photographs.
MC122, William C. Carter Papers.
MC123, Marcel Proust Letters.
Physical Condition Acid free folder, acid free box

This page created 2016

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

Mervyn H. Sterne Library

917 13th St S
Birmingham, AL

(205) 934-6364

Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences

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Birmingham, AL

(205) 975-4821

Reynolds-Finley Historical Library

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Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences

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Lister Hill Library at University Hospital

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(205) 934-2275

801 Building

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Room 1111
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(205) 934-5432

J. Ellis Sparks Medical Library

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Huntsville, AL 35801

(256) 551-4405

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