Hjalmar Söderberg was born in Stockholm in 1869, the son of a tax official. After finishing secondary school, he enrolled at Uppsala University, but soon abandoned his studies to work as a journalist. In 1899 he married Märta Abenius, with whom he had three children. The marriage failed and they divorced in 1917. He had previously been in a relationship with Emilie Voss, with whom he moved to Denmark. There he lived in seclusion, wrote essays and took a critical look at religion and morality. His work remained controversial in Sweden for a long time. He died in Copenhagen in 1941.