William Martin Nygaard (6 February 1865 – 19 December 1952) 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 ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and politician.

Personal life

Nygaard was born in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporati ...

as the son of educator and linguist Marius Nygaard (1838–1912) and his wife Elisabeth "Elise" Martin (1842–1923)William Martin Nygaard
— Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) and brother of Kristen Brunfeldt Nygaard and Finn Nygaard. He married Constance Wiel, and the couple had seven children, among them Mads Wiel Nygaard, who was the father of

William Nygaard William Nygaard (born 16 March 1943) is the retired head of the Norwegian publishing company Aschehoug. He was also chairman of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He has two children. Business career From 1974 to 2010, he was the chief pub ...

, and Andreas Melchior Wiel Nygaard. Their daughter Constance Wiel Nygaard married physician Thomas Schram. In 1894 he bought Drammensveien 99 and moved in with his family. It is in the garden outside ''Drammensveien 99'' the annual

garden party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

of Aschehoug takes place each summer.

Publisher

He was employed in H. Aschehoug & Co's bookstore 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 ...

in 1887. In 1888, together with

Thorstein Lambrechts Thorstein Aschehoug Lambrechts (6 October 1856 – 11 May 1933) was a Norwegian bookseller. Biography Lambrechts was born in the village of Kråkstad in Akershus, Norway. He was a son of veterinarian Bernhard Gabrielsen Lambrechts (1828-1907) and Ka ...

, he bought the bookstore and the publishing house. Then, in 1900 he became the sole owner of the publishing house and changed the name of the company to ''H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard)''. He was chief executive of the publishing house until 1940 when his son Mads Wiel Nygaard took over as chief executive. William Martin Nygaard continued as chairman of the board. In 1895 William Nygaard initiated the founding of the

Norwegian Publishers Association The Norwegian Publishers' Association ( no, Den norske Forleggerforening) is a publishing house association in Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which compr ...

, serving as chairman from 1895 to 1922 and 1925 to 1929.

Politician

William Nygaard was a member of Kristiania city council from 1908 to 1919. In 1910 he was one of the founders of the political party Liberal Left Party, chairing the local chapter in Kristiania until 1916. He was a central board member of the party from 1912 to 1915. He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1921 for the term 1922–1924, representing the constituency Kristiania. He served only one term. He had previously been elected as deputy representative from Hammersborg in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". * January ...

. He also fielded as the Liberal Left candidate in Uranienborg in the 1912 election, but only carried 81 votes and lost spectacularly. He was also a member of the board of Oslo City Museum (1902–1922), the Norwegian Booksellers Association (1905–1918), Saugbrugsforeningen (1914–1932), Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse (1917–1922),

Nationaltheatret The National Theatre in Oslo ( no, Nationaltheatret) is one of Norway's largest and most prominent venues for performance of dramatic arts. History The theatre had its first performance on 1 September 1899 but can trace its origins to Christia ...

(1922–1923),

Vinmonopolet Vinmonopolet ( en, The Wine Monopoly), symbolized by Ⓥ and colloquially shortened to Polet, is a government-owned alcoholic beverage retailer and the only company allowed to sell beverages containing an alcohol content higher than 4.75% in No ...

(1929–1932) and the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.

References

* Erik Rudeng: ''William Nygaard: 1865–1952'' ( Aschehoug, Oslo, 1997) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nygaard, William Martin 1865 births 1952 deaths People from Kristiansand Norwegian book publishers (people) Members of the Storting Free-minded Liberal Party politicians 20th-century Norwegian politicians Politicians from Oslo