Indriði Guðmundur Þorsteinsson (18 April 1926 – 3 September 2000)''Morgunblaðið'', 5 September 2000, p. 72. was an Icelandic writer.

Life

Indriði was born on a farm in

Skagafjörður Skagafjörður () is a deep fjord and its valley in northern Iceland. Location Skagafjörður, the fjord, is about 40 km long and 15 km wide, situated between Tröllaskagi to the east and the Skagi, Skagi Peninsula to the west. Ther ...

, the son of a labourer. He studied at Héraðsskólinn á Laugarvatni from 1942 to 1943. He worked as a driver in

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

from 1945 to 1951, when he became a reporter at

Tíminn ''Tíminn'' () was an Icelandic daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspape ...

. From 1959 to 1962 he was a reporter for

Alþýðublaðið ''Alþýðublaðið'' (Anglicised to ''Althydubladid'') was a newspaper of the Social Democratic Party (Iceland). It was published between 29 October 1919 and 2 October 1998. The paper was originally published six times a week, but ceased as a dail ...

and from 1962 to 1973 he was the editor of the newspaper ''Tíminn''. In 1973 he was appointed director of the national festival, which was held at

Þingvellir Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter thorn (letter), "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Althing, Alþing, the annual ...

in 1974. In the years following, he worked at his writing until again becoming the editor of Tíminn (1987–1991). He was also campaign director for Albert Gudmundsson's presidential run where he ceded to Vigdis Finnbogadottir. Indriði was the father of the writer

Arnaldur Indriðason Arnaldur Indriðason (pronounced ; born 28 January 1961) is an Icelandic writer of crime fiction; his most popular series features the protagonist Detective Erlendur. Early life Arnaldur was born in Reykjavík on 28 January 1961, the son o ...

Early works

Indriði first received attention by winning a short story contest in 1951 with ''Blástör'', a humorous and erotic fertility story. That same year he published his first short story collection, ''Sæluvika''. In 1955 he published his first novel, ''79 af stöðinni'' ("Taxi 79"). The book was very successful. It deals with the difficulties of a country boy who moves to the city and, more generally, the ongoing changes in Icelandic society brought by modernization and urbanization.Jóhann Hjálmarsson.Ástráður Eysteinsson, p. 414. The story was made into a film in 1962, a milestone in the history of Icelandic cinema.

Later works

*Þeir sem guðirnir elska (1957), short story collection *Land og synir (1963, "Land and Sons"), novel *Þjófur í paradís (1967, "Thief in Paradise"), novel *Norðan við stríð (1971, "North of War"), novel His novels ''Land og synir'' and ''Norðan við stríð'' were shortlisted for the

Nordic Council's Literature Prize The Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded for a work of literature written in one of the languages of the Nordic countries, that meets "high literary and artistic standards". Established in 1962, the prize is awarded every year, and is worth ...

in 1965 and 1973 respectively.Nordic Council
Previous prize winners and nominations
, retrieved January 2008.

Notes

References

Andlát : Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
, ''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic daily newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. It is currently the country's only daily printed newspaper and the newspaper of record. Hi ...

'', 5 September 2000, p. 72. *Ástráður Eysteinsson (2007). "Icelandic Prose Literature, 1940–1980" in ''A History of Icelandic Literature'', edited by Daisy L. Neijmann, pp. 404–438.

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

. . *Dagný Kristjánsdóttir (2006). "Árin eftir seinna stríð", in ''Íslensk bókmenntasaga IV'', edited by

Guðmundur Andri Thorsson Guðmundur Andri Thorsson is an editor, critic, and author born in Iceland on 31 December 1957. He received his degree in literature in 1983 from the University of Iceland. His first work was as a literary critic in the 1980s. His first novel, '' ...

, pp. 419–661. Mál og menning. . *Jóhann Hjálmarsson (2000).
Indriði G. Þorsteinsson
, ''

'', 5 September 2000, p. 28. {{DEFAULTSORT:Indridi G. Thorsteinsson Icelandic writers Thorsteinsson, Indridi G. Thorsteinsson, Indridi G.