Torolf Elster (27 May 1911 – 4 November 2006) was a Norwegian newspaper and radio journalist, magazine editor,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

, crime fiction writer and writer of short stories. He was

Director-General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

of the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

(NRK) from 1972 to 1981.

Background

Elster was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

. His parents were author and literary critic Kristian Elster, Jr. (1881–1947) and Ragnhild Poulsen (1885–1958). He was married to poet and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

Magli Elster (née Raknes, daughter of psychologist Ola Raknes and poet and playwright Aslaug Vaa). He was the father of philosopher

Jon Elster Jon Elster (; born 22 February 1940) is a Norwegian philosopher and political theorist who holds the Robert K. Merton professorship of Social Science at Columbia University and since 2005 professor of social science at the Collège de France. ...

Journalist and literary career

Elster made his literary debut in 1936 with the novel ''Muren''. He was a sales manager at the

publishing company Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Tiden Norsk Forlag in the late 1930s. He was a member of the communist movement

Mot Dag (, 'Towards Day') was a Norway, Norwegian political group. The group was active from the 1920s to the early 1930s and was first affiliated with the Labour Party (Norway), Labour Party until 1925. After World War II, many of its former members were ...

before the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

1940–1945, during which he had to flee the country. The novel ''Historien om Gottlob'' was issued in 1941. In

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

he edited the underground newspaper '' Håndslag'', together with Eyvind Johnson and

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

. ''Håndslag'' was smuggled into Norway and distributed illegally. Funded by the Norwegian legation in Stockholm, it was issued once every second week, and was printed in 15–20,000 copies towards the end of the war. Elster was also a commentator in '' Norsk Tidend''. Elster was a foreign editor for ''

Arbeiderbladet is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. Eirik Hoff Lys ...

'' from 1945 to 1946, and editor of the

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

's magazine '' Kontakt'' from 1947 to 1954. He then wrote for ''Arbeiderbladet'' for almost ten years, from 1954 to 1963. During this time he also wrote several non-fiction books, mainly political literature: ''Frihet og demokrati'' (Freedom and Democracy, 1947), ''Øst og Vest'' (East and West, 1948), ''Sosialismen under debatt'' (Socialism Under Debate, 1950) and ''Sovjetmysteriet'' (The Soviet Mystery, 1957). He started working as a program manager for the

in 1963, and was

from 1972 to 1981. Elster was awarded the Riverton Prize for the

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

''Thomas Pihls annen lov'' (1982). In 1986 he and Magli Elster were awarded the

Fritt Ord Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord (organization), Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award () and the Frit ...

. He died in 2006 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elster, Torolf 1911 births 2006 deaths Norwegian crime fiction writers Norwegian magazine editors NRK people Norwegian television executives Norwegian resistance members Norwegian expatriates in Sweden Norwegian political writers Mot Dag 20th-century Norwegian novelists 20th-century Norwegian journalists