[2][3] Those collections mention his work of charcoal-burning; he describes looking after the charcoal "by the dim glow of a sooty lantern, swinging from the smoke-grimy roof of his sod-cabin.

[2][3] During 1914–1915, Andersson studied at the Brunnsvik folk high school, with, among others, future authors Harry Blomberg and Ragnar Jändel.

He was a co-worker at the Social Democratic newspaper Ny Tid in Gothenburg 1917–1918, and he also translated texts by Rudyard Kipling and Charles Baudelaire into Swedish.

[6] The historian of literature Ingemar Algulin writes that Andersson's ballads "were splendidly rhythmic and mellow and permeated by sentimental strains"; they include some of the most popular of all Swedish poems, such as "Helgdagskväll i timmerkojan", "En spelmans jordafärd", and "Jungman Jansson".

[7] The translator Roger Hinchliffe comments that Andersson "could never have dreamed how beloved his verses would become, nor that they would attract more composers than any other 20th century Swedish poet.

"[4] He characterises Andersson's verse as containing a quantity of "Oriental mysticism", alongside love of the forested region and its simple people, "lumberjacks, charcoal makers and fiddlers", with their hard poor ways of life, their "storytelling and music".

[4] In 2005, Sofia Karlsson recorded a new interpretation of 11 of his songs on her album Svarta ballader, which received a Grammis award in both Sweden and Denmark.