Sigurd Hoel
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Sigurd Hoel (December 14, 1890 – October 14, 1960) was a
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and publishing consultant, born in
Nord-Odal Nord-Odal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Odalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sand. Other villages in the municipality include Knapper and Mo. The ...
. He debuted with the collection of short stories (The Way We Go) in 1922. His breakthrough came with (Sinners in Summertime, 1927), which was made into a film in 1932 and in 2002.


Life

Hoel was born in
Nord-Odal Nord-Odal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Odalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sand. Other villages in the municipality include Knapper and Mo. The ...
, Norway, in 1890. He was the son of teacher Lars Anton and Elisa Dorothea Hoel and grew up in
Odalen Odal or Odalen is a valley and traditional district in Innlandet county, Norway. The district encompasses the area around the lake Storsjøen (Odal), Storsjøen in the north and to the areas around the river Glåma in the south. The district is c ...
. He was admitted into Ragna Nielsen's school in
Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
(now Oslo), but when he finished school in 1909, he could not afford to begin college right away. He worked for a while as an insurance salesman before he could begin his studies in 1910, during which time he supported himself with teaching jobs. In 1913 he was an employee at . In his time at college he was the editor of the periodical ''
Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
''. His literary career began with the short story "" ('The Idiot') from 1918, when he won a writing contest. The same year he became an employee of as a literature and theater critic. In 1920 he wrote the comedy together with his friend
Finn Bø Finn Bø (4 July 1893 – 24 April 1962) was a Norwegian songwriter, revue writer, playwright, journalist, instructor and theatre critic. Career Bø is particularly remembered for his song Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått, which became extreme ...
.
Harald Grieg Harald Grieg (3 August 1894 – 6 October 1972) was a Norwegian publisher. He was director of Gyldendal Norsk Forlag and for many years was a leading figure in the Norwegian book industry. Biography Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway. He was the ...
got him a job as a consultant for
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS, commonly referred to as Gyldendal N.F. and in Norway often only as Gyldendal, is one of the largest Norwegian publishing houses. It was founded in 1925 after buying rights to publications from the Danish publishing ho ...
and
Erling Falk Erling Falk (12 August 1887 – 31 July 1940) was a Norwegian politician, ideologist and writer. He was active in the Norwegian Students' Society, the Norwegian Labour Party and the Communist Party, but is best known as a leading figure in the ...
made him the editor of ''
Mot Dag Mot Dag (, 'Towards Day') was a Norwegian political group. The group was active from the 1920s to the early 1930s and was first affiliated with the Labour Party. After World War II, many of its former members were leaders in Norwegian politics and ...
''. In 1924 he traveled to
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
to study
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, and there he wrote his first novel, ('The Seven Star'). He continued on to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he met
Nic Waal Nic Waal, born Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen in Kristiania, Norway (1 January 1905 – 28 May 1960) was a Norwegian psychiatrist, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatr ...
(died 1960), whom he married in Norway in 1927. They separated in 1936, and the same year he married again, this time to Ada Ivan. From 1934 to 1939 Hoel was a colleague of
Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
who then had chosen Oslo as his exile. Since January 1934 he had received training analysis from Reich but the extent of his own practice as a therapist was limited to four patients. Hoel contributed to Reich's German language periodical (Journal for Political Psychology and Sex Economy) and was the editor-in-chief of issues nos. 13 to 15. One of his major essays deals with the
Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
.Der Moskauer Prozess
(German)
During the war Hoel and his wife went back to Odalen. He participated in the Resistance, and wrote articles for the Resistance press. In 1943 he was forced to flee to
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. Hoel had a short connection to the ''
landsmål Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...
'' movement, but later played an active part in the ''
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 ...
'' campaign. He was among the founders of ('the Author's Association of 1952') and was the chairman of the
Riksmål Society Riksmålsforbundet (; official translation: "The Riksmaal Society - The Society for the Preservation of Traditional Standard Norwegian") is the main organisation for Riksmål, an unofficial variety of the Norwegian language, based on the official ...
from 1956 to 1959. He died of a heart attack at age 69 in Oslo.


Body of work

('' Road to the World's End'', 1933) is a child's portrayal from a farm environment and is considered one of his key works, together with, among other things, the novel ('' Meeting at the Milestone'', 1947). In this novel he both distances himself from
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and portrays the confrontation of war as a problem. The last novel, ''Trollringen'' ('' The Troll Circle'', 1958), is also among his best-known works. As the main consultant for Norwegian and translated literature for Gyldendal publishing, Hoel made an impression on a whole generation of Norwegian literature. From 1929 to 1959 Hoel was the editor of the publisher's "Gold Series", where he introduced a number of foreign authors, often with an astounding foresight for which works would remain. The series comprised 101 books—including works from authors such as
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
and
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
. Hoel wrote prefaces for all of the books, and the preferences are collected in the books ''50 gold'' (1939) and ''The last 51 gold'' (1959).


Works

* ''Knut Hamsun'', O. Norlis, 1920 * ''Veien vi gaar'',
Gyldendal Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S, usually referred to simply as Gyldendal () is a Danish publishing house. Founded in 1770 by Søren Gyldendal, it is the oldest and largest publishing house in Denmark, offering a wide selection of bo ...
, 1922. Short stories. * ''Syvstjernen'', Gyldendal, 1924. Novel. * '' Syndere i sommersol'', Gyldendal, 1927. Novel. * ''Ingenting'', Gyldendal, 1929. Novel. * ''Mot muren'', Gyldendal, 1930. Drama. * ''Don Juan'', Gyldendal, 1930. Drama, written together with
Helge Krog Helge Krog (9 February 1889 – 30 July 1962) was a Norwegian journalist, essayist, theatre and literary critic, translator and playwright. Personal life Krog was born in Kristiania, the son of jurist Fredrik Arentz Krog and Ida Cecilie Thorese ...
. * '' En dag i oktober'', Gyldendal, 1931. Novel. * ''Veien til verdens ende'', Gyldendal, 1933. Novel. * ''Fjorten dager før frostnettene'', Gyldendal, 1935. Novel. * ''Sesam sesam'', Gyldendal, 1938. Novel. * ''Prinsessen på glassberget'', Gyldendal, 1939. Short stories. * ''50 gule'', Gyldendal, 1939. Articles. * ''Arvestålet'', Gyldendal, 1941. Novel. * ''Tanker i mærketid'', Gyldendal, 1945. Essays. * ''Møte ved milepelen'', Gyldendal, 1947. Novel. * ''Tanker fra mange tider'', Gyldendal, 1948. Essays. * ''Jeg er blitt glad i en annen'', Gyldendal, 1951. Novel. * ''Tanker mellom barken og veden'', Gyldendal, 1952. Essays. * ''Stevnemøte med glemte år'', Gyldendal, 1954. Novel. * ''Tanker om norsk diktning'', Gyldendal, 1955. Essays. * ''Ved foten av Babels tårn'', Gyldendal, 1956. Novel. * ''Trollringen'', Gyldendal, 1956. Novel. * ''De siste 51 gule'', Gyldendal, 1959. Articles.


Posthumous works

* ''Ettertanker'', Gyldendal, 1980. Left behind essays and articles, published by Leif Longum. * ''Litterære essays'', Dreyer, 1990. Published by Helge Nordahl.


Translations

*
Anita Loos Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triang ...
, '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'', Gyldendal, 1926. *
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
, ''
The Nigger of the Narcissus ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', Gyldendal, 1928 * Joseph Conrad, ''
Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...
'', Gyldendal, 1929 * Joseph Conrad, ''
Lord Jim ''Lord Jim'' is a novel by Joseph Conrad originally published as a serial in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from October 1899 to November 1900. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, i ...
'', Gyldendal, 1932 *
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
, ''
Light in August ''Light in August'' is a 1932 novel by the Southern American author William Faulkner. It belongs to the Southern gothic and modernist literary genres. Set in the author's present day, the interwar period, the novel centers on two strangers, a ...
'', Gyldendal, 1934 *
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
, ''
Arrival and Departure ''Arrival and Departure'' (1943) is the third novel of Arthur Koestler's trilogy concerning the conflict between morality and expedience (as described in the postscript to the novel's 1966 Danube Edition). The first volume, '' The Gladiators'' ...
'', Gyldendal, 1946


Awards and distinctions

*
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 w ...
(Gyldendal's Legacy) 1940 *
Bokhandlerprisen The Norwegian Booksellers' Prize (''Bokhandlerprisen'') is a literature prize awarded annually by the Norwegian Booksellers Association after voting among all who work in Norwegian bookstores. The prize is awarded for one of the year's books in t ...
(Bookseller Award) 1948


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoel, Sigurd 1890 births 1960 deaths People from Nord-Odal Norwegian writers Mot Dag Members of the Norwegian Academy