Arthur Omre (17 December 1887, in

Brunlanes Brunlanes is a parish and former municipality within Larvik municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It was annexed by Larvik on January 1, 1988. The administrative centre of the municipality was located in the adjacent villages of Nevlunghavn an ...

– 16 August 1967) was a Norwegian novelist and writer of short stories. Omre hailed from

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

. With a background as sailor, journalist, constructor in the United States, engineer in Oslo, businessman and entrepreneur, he went bankrupt in 1922. From then on he initiated a criminal career, and made a living from liquor smuggling, swindle and theft, also spending long periods in prison. Following release from jail in 1935, Omre made his literary début with the novel ''Smuglere'' (Smugglers). The story is largely based on his own experiences, and is written in

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

style. Then came the follow-ups ''Flukten'' (1936), ''Sukkenes bro'' (1937) and ''Kristinus Bergmann'' (1938). He was awarded

Gyldendal's Endowment Gyldendal's Endowment was a literature prize which was awarded in the period 1934–1995 by the Norwegian publisher Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. The prize was awarded to significant authors, regardless of which publisher the author was associated wi ...

in 1938. In 1939 he wrote the novel ''Intermesso'', in 1940 ''Det onde øie'', in 1941 ''Harmoni'', and in 1942 ''Mysterium i Rolvsøy''. He published several short story collections. Many of his short stories were first published in magazines, such as ''

Arbeidermagasinet ''Arbeidermagasinet'' was a Norwegian language, Norwegian weekly literary magazine established in 1927. It changed its name to ''Magasinet For Alle'' in 1953, and ceased publication in 1970. The magazine is especially noted for its literary quali ...

''. In the 1950s he wrote the trilogy ''Mikkelfanten'', ''Svarte-Paal'' and ''Ek & Co''.

Selected works

* (novel) * (novel) * (novel) * (novel) * (novel) * (novel) * (novel) * (short story collection) * (novel) * (short story collection) * (short story collection) * (short story collection)

References

1887 births 1967 deaths People from Larvik 20th-century Norwegian businesspeople 20th-century Norwegian criminals Norwegian male criminals 20th-century Norwegian engineers 20th-century Norwegian journalists Norwegian prisoners and detainees Norwegian sailors Prisoners and detainees of Norway Smugglers 20th-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian crime fiction writers Norwegian short story writers {{Norway-writer-stub