Ole Torvalds (4 August 1916 – 8 February 1995) was a Finnish-Swedish

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

. He was the father of journalist-politician

Nils Torvalds Nils Ole Hilmer Torvalds (born 7 August 1945) is a Finnish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2012. He is a member of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for ...

and grandfather of software engineer

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also ...

famous for the Linux kernel. His full name was Ole Torvald Elis Saxberg, but he was also named Karanko after his step father,

Toivo Karanko Toivo Tuomas Savolainen, later Karanko (20 September 1891 Nurmes - 15 May 1969 Helsinki) was a Finnish Jäger captain and a journalist.Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto 1938Suomen jääkärien elämäkerrasto 1975 Studies Savolainen enrolled as ...

. His family belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority. In 1935 when he had moved to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

for studies he changed his name to Torvalds. In 1944 he was awarded a literature prize from '' Svenska Dagbladet'' (shared with

Harry Martinson Harry Martinson (6May 190411February 1978) was a Swedish writer, poet and former sailor. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy. He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson "for wr ...

, Lars Ahlin and Elly Jannes). In 1978 he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Åbo Akademi. His career as journalist was started as editor of

Västra Nyland ''Västra Nyland'' is a regional Swedish-language newspaper in Finland. The name of the newspaper translates into "The western part of the Nyland region (of Finland)", this region also being the area where the newspaper is circulated. The newspap ...

in Ekenäs where he stayed until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He was married to Märta von Wendt and had three children with her. After a divorce he became editor of Österbottningen in Karleby. Then he remarried with

Meta Torvalds Elin Margareta "Meta" Torvalds (née Gyllenberg; 14 January 1922-10 February 2012) was a Finnish journalist. Biography Torvalds started as a journalist in 1946 at Österbottningen, and then she moved to Åbo Underrättelser in 1948. She worked a ...

, fathered two more children and later became editor of

Åbo Underrättelser ''Åbo Underrättelser'' is a Swedish language newspaper published in Turku ( sv, Åbo), Finland. History and profile ''Åbo Underrättelser'' is the oldest newspaper still in print in Finland, founded by Christian Ludvig Hjelt in 1823. The fir ...

, of which he was the chief editor from 1958 to 1967.

Works

* "Vi sjunger inte för dem" (We don't sing for them), 1939 * "Ointagligt land", poems (Indomitable country), 1942 * "Hemligt medansvar" (Secret partial responsibility), poems, 1944 * "Svår glädje" (Difficult happiness), short stories, 1946 * "Strängar av aska" (Strings of ash), poems, 1954 * "Mellan is och eld" (Between ice and fire), poems, 1957 * "Vid källorna" (By the springs), 1961 * "Speglingar i en å" (Reflections in a river), 1972 * "Livstecken" (Signs of life), poems, 1986 * "Vågmärken" (Wave marks; literally Wave-formed ripple marks), poems about the archipelago 1937–1987, 1988 In addition, Ole Torvalds participated in compiling several cultural historical books and other works. He is one of the authors biographied by

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

.Project Runeberg on Ole Torvalds
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Translations

* Hangö fästning,

Reino Aaltonen Reino is the Portuguese, Galician and Spanish word for ''kingdom'' and may refer to: * Reino, Campania, a town in the province of Benevento, Italy People Surname Reino is a Spanish surname. Notable people with this surname include: * Fernando Góm ...

* Ett sekel till havs, Effoas hundra första år 1883–1983,

Paavo Haavikko Paavo Juhani Haavikko (January 25, 1931 in Helsinki – October 6, 2008) was a Finnish poet, playwright, essayist and publisher, considered one of the country's most outstanding writers. He published more than 70 works, and his poems have been tran ...

* Nio mans stövlar, Pentti Haanpää * Efter applåderna, Kosti Vehanen * Sinuhe, egyptiern (''

The Egyptian ''The Egyptian'' (''Sinuhe egyptiläinen'', Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. It was first published in Finnish in 1945, and in an abridged English translation by Naomi Walford in 1949, from Swedish rather than Finni ...

''),

Mika Waltari Mika Toimi Waltari (; 19 September 1908 – 26 August 1979) was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel '' The Egyptian'' ( fi, Sinuhe egyptiläinen). He was extremely productive. Besides his novels he also wrote poetry, short stor ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torvalds, Ole 1916 births 1995 deaths People from Raseborg People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Swedish-speaking Finns Writers from Uusimaa Finnish poets in Swedish 20th-century poets Ole 20th-century Finnish journalists