I boken om Svenssons får vi följa händelser i en helt vanlig stockholmsfamilj under hundra år. Generationerna växlar, seder och levnadssätt ändras liksom yrken och sysselsättningar. I familjen finns under åren handlare, hantverkare, kontorister och andra, en del flitiga, skötsamma och aktiva, andra med olika besvär med att finna sig tilrätta.
Per Anders Fogelström was among the leading figures in modern Swedish literature. He spent his whole life in Stockholm, and the most famous of his many works is a series of novels set in the city he dearly loved.
Ingmar Bergman's taboo-breaking 1953 film Summer with Monika is based on Fogelström's novel of the same name, published in 1951.
The author of more than 40 books in total, Fogelström also served as director of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society from 1963 to 1977. He received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University in 1976. On the day he died, June 23, 1998, a bust of Fogelström was unveiled in Stockholm City Hall.