In the summer of 1999 my morning commute went thus: I would walk up St. Marks Place to the N/R subway under Broadway, which took me to the Financial District, home of the whopping equity bubble.

Just off St. Marks and 2nd Ave, I would stop by the Porto Rico Importing Co. to pick up a coffee. At the time, I still smoked, and because it is hard to light a cigarette with matches while holding a scalding beverageI always used those free flat matchbooks from grocery stores because the half-life of any lighter in my possession was measured in hours., I would first set the cup on the window ledge of a bank just next to the store. The cigarette and coffee lasted exactly as long as it took for me to get from there to Broadway. My commute was well-rehearsed.

One drizzly morning, the window ledge had an old, damp letter lying on it. Absent an owner, I took it. Two things were immediately clear: It was addressed to a Margaretha Lennerbring, living in Stockholm, and it was mailed in 1970. I couldn’t read Swedish, but I knew several people who did. I showed it to them. It was a love letter! A young Swedish man doing his military service had written to his girlfriend
 
Lucidor turns out to be a renowned 17th-century Swedish poet, not the least for having composed some of the country’s favorite drinking songs..

I kept the letter. Over the past four years, I’ve come to feel responsible for it, and these last 9 months, as my Swedish has gotten progressively better, I have returned to it periodically, as a yardstick for my comprehension.

I have a theory as to why it was on the ledge that morning: In 1999, the corner of St. Marks and 2nd Ave still had second-hand book peddlers on the sidewalk. The peddlers feature tangentially in the 1992 King Missile cult spoken word/song hit Detachable Penis (Lyrics). I imagine somebody bought a book there, found this incomprehensible letter in it, and discarded it. Perhaps they couldn’t bring themselves to actually throw it in a garbage can, so they left it on the window ledge, feeling guilty, not wanting to favor the cause of entropy (our common enemy).

This letter has been important to someone, important enough perhaps even to drag it across the Atlantic. All would be clear were I to find Margaretha. To that end, the Swedish studies task I set myself yesterday was translating the letter in full:

Page 1
 

Hässleholm, 1/7/70 (the night before)

Hey sweetheart,

Thanks for the letter, it was really kind of you. I was in such a good mood all Monday thanks to your letter. It’s really great that you have already met Timo, and, by the way, say hi to him for me.

I have been to Sergels– and Hötorget [Shopping center in Stockholm].

Here at PZ [P2? army regiment?] it’s the same shit as usual, lying and crawling in shit, and last night (Tuesday) we thoroughly cleaned our whole [military] company, although it was not approved, so we can do it all again, unfortunately.:

Page 2
 

It is not so fun to go home to Halmstad when you aren’t there, the only fun thing was when I, Kent and Gustav (Kent’s father) worked on Kent’s boat and drank beer (and I thought of you, you sweet “witch”). I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a witch. On Saturday we were in Mellby, first at Christer’s house, and we were all in a good mood (Christer, Kent, Roger, and I), although after a few hours in Mellby, Liza came with another boy, whom I’ve never seen before, and then Kent became angry (I think it was jealousy) and we went home early.:

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On Sunday we continued to work on Kent’s boat until 5pm and then I had to dash home to eat and then I took the train to Hässleholm. By the way, little Maggan didn’t come down because Ryden and I were at her aunt’s place (I think) and she said that Maggan had hurt herself and so couldn’t come, but we got a free snack [fika] out of it.

Now you have to wait a moment because I am going to take a smoking break. I’ll be back soon, darling. Now I have smoked.

I’ll write a letter before I come up to you because I must figure out train schedules:

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and connections so that I can tell you when I come up to Stockholm so that you can come and meet me at the station. I can perhaps already come on Thursday noon, if that’s okay with you, because I long for you so much. I get paid about 350 kr now in wages because we will definitely go to Göteborg LV 6 on July 27.

Kiss and hug from Bengt and I hope that you don’t forget me.

Write soon darling and I will read your letter many times so that I stay in a good mood. Bye [Maggan…?] sweetheart.:

Here are the most important clues, then:

• It is addressed to Margaretha Lennerbring, who lived at an address in Gamla Stan, Stockholm. Today, it is student housing, and most likely it would have been when the letter was written. Perhaps “Lucidor” refers to a building, floor or university society named after the poet.

  Update (29/6/2003): It does indeed: The building is called Lucidor, and here it is on the web.

• The author writes from Hässleholm, where he is doing his military service.
• They both seem to be from Halmstad or nearby Wellby, where they have friends in common.
• The letter was written and sent on July 1, 1970. If Margaretha was around 18 then, she’d be around 50 today.
• She seems to have just arrived in Stockholm: The author refers to a previous letter, wherein she must have mentioned that she had “already” met a common friend (Timo).

While there is plenty of information here, there are also plenty of questions, namely:

• Did she take the letter with her to New York, perhaps as a bookmark?
• Did she come back to Sweden or did she stay in the US?
• Is she married to the author? There is nobody with her name in Sweden, according to a cursory search on Eniro, but she would likely have dropped her maiden name if she got married.
• If she did not marry the author, how did the relationship end?
• What does PZ or P2 signify? Is there a military connotation?
• What or who is a Maggan?

  Update (30/6/2003): Maggan is the diminuitive for Margaretha, says Joachim.

So, does anyone reading this know these people, or know how to find them? Or perhaps someone can answer some of the military or university clues? There seems to be only one Lennerbring living in Sweden — perhaps I should send him a letterUpdate Dec 1, 2003: The story continues here.. Posting this information here is not as passive as it seems; I expect Google to hoover all this up, and between now and 20 years from now I am sure I will get searches that refer to this post, perhaps even a Lennerbring googling him or herself. I can wait.