Yngvar Ustvedt (8 April 1928 – 29 January 2007) was a Norwegian writer, biographer, literary researcher, literary critic, theatre critic and radio personality.

Personal life

Ustvedt was born in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

, as the son of medical doctor and broadcasting administrator Hans Jacob Ustvedt, and Ingrid With. He was a grandson of Nils Yngvar Ustvedt. He married Lajla Margrete Gedde-Dahl in 1954, and librarian Tordis Seippel in 1969.

Career

Ustvedt took his

examen artium Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1 ...

in 1946, and after studies at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, he became a cand.philol. in 1955. While being a student, he chaired the Norwegian Students' Society, in 1954. He lectured on

Norwegian language Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...

and literature at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

from 1958 to 1961. His doctoral thesis was a work on

Henrik Wergeland Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland (17 June 1808 – 12 July 1845) was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the develop ...

, ''Det levende univers: En studie i Henrik Wergelands natur-lyrikk'' (1964). He was a literary critic for the 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 ...

'' from 1958 to 1978, and for ''

Verdens Gang ''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...

'' from 1987. He worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), sporadically from 1949, and regularly from 1965 to 1987. He mainly produced programs on literature, culture and contemporary history. He wrote more than seventy books, including a series of four volumes on the history of Norway, ''Det skjedde i Norge'' (1978–1993). He wrote several books on the history of the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

, such as ''Opprørere'' from 1973, ''Karl Marx'' from 1976, and ''De store anarkister'' and ''De utopiske sosialister'' (both from 1977). He wrote books about

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 ...

, both on everyday life in Norway, and the fate of mentally disordered people in Nazi Germany. He published a biography on Henrik Wergeland in 1994. He was a board member of the

Norwegian Authors' Union The Norwegian Authors' Union ( no, Den norske Forfatterforening, DnF) is an association of Norwegian authors. It was established in 1893 to promote Norwegian literature and protect Norwegian authors' professional and economic interests. DnF also w ...

from 1968 to 1979.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ustvedt, Yngvar 1928 births 2007 deaths University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris Norwegian literary critics Norwegian theatre critics Norwegian biographers Male biographers NRK people People from Tromsø 20th-century biographers 20th-century Norwegian male writers