Peer Stromme also Per Olsen Strømme (September 15, 1856 – September 15, 1921) was an American pastor, teacher, journalist, and author.

Early life and education

Peer Olson Strømme was born in Winchester, Wisconsin to immigrant parents from Norway. Stromme graduated from Luther College and attended

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, Missionary, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Chur ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Career

In 1879, he was ordained into the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

ministry. He subsequently held a teaching post at St. Olaf College. Peer Stromme was editor of ''Norden'', a Norwegian language paper in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Additionally he was the founding editor of the Norwegian language newspaper ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

''. He also translated books for the John Anderson Publishing Company in

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and the Lutheran Publishing House of

Decorah, Iowa Decorah is a city in and the county seat of Winneshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,587 at the time of the 2020 census. Decorah is located at the intersection of State Highway 9 and U.S. Route 52, and is the largest commun ...

. Stromme was the author of several books written in the Norwegian language which explored the Norwegian immigrant experience. His articles appeared in the

Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

literary magazine, '' Symra''. Stomme was influenced in his writing style by other Norwegian American writers who had provided a truthful renditions of the lives of immigrant settlers, in particular

Hans Andersen Foss Hans Andersen Foss (November 25, 1851 – July 9, 1929) was a Norwegian-American author, newspaper editor and temperance leader. Foss is most noted for his Norwegian language novel, ''Husmands-gutte'' (1885) which was translated into English as ' ...

. Stomme employed many major themes common to immigrant fiction, including the process of settling and assimilating into a new culture. His settings are detailed and realistic, with his books frequently depicting individuals who are at odds with society. He is best remembered for his 1896 novel ''Hvorledes Halvor blev prest''. It was translated and published into English as ''Halvor: A Story of Pioneer Youth'' by David T. Nelson (1891–1969), Professor of English at Luther College.''David T. Nelson'' (Luther College History )
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Selected works

*''Hvorledes Halvor blev prest'' (How Halvor became a pastor) (1894) *''Unge Helgeson'' (Young Helgeson) (1906) *''Den vonde ivold'' (In the Clutches of the Devil) (1910) *''Erindringer / av Peer Strømme'' (Reminiscences of Peer Strømme ) (1923)

References

Additional sources

*''Scandinavian Immigrant Literature'' (Christer Lennart Mossberg, Boise State University Boise, Idaho, 1981) *''The Memoirs of Peer Stromme'', (Originally published as ''Erindringer / av Peer Strømme'' translated by Dr. Neil T. Eckstein. Minneapolis, Minn: Augsburg Publishing House) *''Peer Stromme's Noraville Stories'', (translated by Karl J. Schulz, Gerald Thorson, Neil T. Eckstein, Winchester Academy Ethnic Heritage Monographs. 1977) *''Halvor: A Story of Pioneer Youth'', (translation by David T. Nelson. Decorah, IA: Luther College Press 1960) *''The Western Home: A Literary History of Norwegian-America'', (Chapter 13 titled "Knut Teigen and Peer Stromme, Natives of Wisconsin". by Orm Øverland. Northfield, MN: The Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1996)

External links

National Library of Norway: The Promise of America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stromme Peer American people of Norwegian descent Novelists from Wisconsin People from Winchester, Winnebago County, Wisconsin 19th-century American novelists 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 1856 births 1921 deaths American Lutherans Luther College (Iowa) alumni St. Olaf College alumni 19th-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers Concordia Seminary alumni