Carl Harald Beyer (15 November 1891 – 26 July 1960) was a Norwegian literary historian and lecturer, literary critic, textbook writer and professor of

European literature Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, an ...

at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

Early and personal life

Beyer was born in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, as a son of bookseller Freydar Dekke Høegh von Krogh Beyer (1864–1933) and his German-born wife Flora Charlotte Müller (1862–1912). He was grandson of bookbinder Fredrik Beyer (1827–1903). He married Eidis Johannessen in 1919, and was the father of literary historian

Edvard Beyer Edvard Freydar Beyer (6 October 1920 – 10 November 2003) was a Norwegian literary historian, literary critic, and professor at the University of Oslo from 1958 to 1990. Early and personal life Beyer was born in Haugesund and grew up in ...

Career

Beyer finished his secondary education at Bergen Cathedral School in 1910, and took his final university degree in 1917, in language history. He received ''

Hartvig Lassen Hartvig Marcus Lassen (9 August 1824 – 9 August 1897) was a Norwegian editor, educator and literary historian. Personal life He was born in Bergen, Norway as a son of police chief and burgomaster Albert Lassen (1783–1860) and his wife Abigael ...

's gold medal'' for his dissertation ''Henrik Wergeland og Henrich Steffens'' in 1919. He became dr.philos. in 1924, with the thesis ''Søren Kierkegaard og Norge''. He was a teacher in secondary school for 34 years, in Haugesund from 1917 and later at Bergen Cathedral School from 1922, except for one year at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

from 1930 to 1931. During his period as a teacher, he was a literary critic for the newspaper ''

Bergens Tidende ''Bergens Tidende'' is Norway's fifth-largest newspaper, and the country's largest newspaper outside Oslo. ''Bergens Tidende'' is owned by the public company Schibsted ASA. Norwegian owners held a mere 42% of the shares in Schibsted at the end ...

'', amassing about 1600 articles. Selections of his articles were issued in ''Fra Holberg til Hamsun. Skrevet og talt'' (1934), and in the posthumous memorial ''Norsk og fremmed. Artikler i utvalg'' (1961). He wrote several books, including ''Norwegische Literatur'' (1927), ''Norsk litteraturhistorie til orientering og selvstudium'' (1933) and ''Henrik Wergeland. Thi Frihed er Himmelens Sag'' (1946). He also held radio lectures for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He was appointed professor in

at the recently established (1948)

in 1951. His ''Norsk litteraturhistorie'' from 1952 was the most used textbook in its field at Norwegian universities between the 1950s and the mid-1990s. It was also published in the United States. His work ''Nietzsche og Norden'' (two volumes) came in 1958 and 1959. Beyer was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

from 1946. In Bergen he was chair of

Den Nationale Scene Den Nationale Scene ( en, National Theater) is the largest theatre in Bergen, Norway. Den Nationale Scene is also one of the oldest permanent theatres in Norway. History Opened under the name '' Det Norske Theater'' in 1850, the theatre has root ...

and in the Selskapet til Videnskapenes Fremme. He was also a deputy member of the

Norwegian Language Council The Language Council of Norway ( no, Språkrådet, ) is the consultative body of the Norwegian state on language issues. It was established in 2005 and replaced the Norwegian Language Council (, ) which existed from 1974 to 2005. It is a subsidiar ...

, representing

Riksmål (, also , ) is a written Norwegian language form or spelling standard, meaning the ''National Language'', closely related and now almost identical to the dominant form of Bokmål, known as . Both Bokmål and Riksmål evolved from the Danish wri ...

writers. He died in July 1960 in

. A

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

planned for his seventieth birthday was instead released as a memorial book, titled ''Norsk og fremmed''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyer, Harald 1891 births 1960 deaths Norwegian literary critics Norwegian literary historians Knut Hamsun researchers Riksmål-language writers University of Oslo alumni University of Bergen faculty Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Norwegian people of German descent 20th-century Norwegian educators