Hoel, Sigurd 1890-1960

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HOEL, Sigurd 1890-1960

PERSONAL: Born December 12, 1890, in Sand, Nord-Odal, Norway; died October 14, 1960, in Oslo, Norway; son of an elementary school teacher. Education: Attended University of Oslo, 1909–12.

CAREER: Writer, editor, critic, and translator. Started career as a high-school science teacher in Oslo, Norway. Literary critic for Arbeiderbladet, 1922–31, and Dagbladet, 1932–36. Literary consultant for Gyldendal Norsk forlag, Oslo, from 1924, and chief literary advisor to the publisher, 1931–60.

MEMBER: Forfatterforeningen (cofounder, 1952), Riksmålsforbundet (chair, 1956–59).

AWARDS, HONORS: Prize from nordiske romankonkurrance, 1931.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

Veien vi går: noveller, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Kristiania, Norway), 1922, reprinted, 1951.

Syvstjernen, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Kristiania, Norway), 1924.

Syndere i sommersol, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1927, translation by Elizabeth Sprigge and Claude Napier published as Sinners in Summertime, Coward-McCann (New York, NY), 1930, with an afterword by Sverre Lyngstad, Ig Publishing (New York, NY), 2002.

Ingenting, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1929.

En dag i oktober, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1931, translation by Sölvi Bateson and Richard Bateson published as One Day in October, Coward-McCann (New York, NY), 1932.

Veien til verdens ende, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1933, translation by Sverre Lyngstad published as The Road to the World's End, Sun & Moon Press (Los Angeles, CA), 1995.

Fjorten dage fφr frostnaetterne, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1935.

Sesam, sesam, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1938.

Prinsessen på glassberget, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1939.

Arvestålet: Fortellingen om Håvard Gjermundsson Viland: Ungdommen, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1941.

Møte ved milepelen, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1947, translation by Evelyn Ramsden published as Meeting at the Milestone, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1950.

Jeg er blitt glad i en annen, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1951.

Stevnemøte med glemte år, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1954.

Ved foden af Babels tårn, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1956.

Trollringen, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1958, translation by Sverre Lyngstad published as The Troll Circle, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1991.

Kapitler om kjærlighet, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1960.

ESSAYS

Tanker i mørketid, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1945.

Tanker fra mange tider, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1948.

Tanker mellom barken og veden, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1952.

Sprogkampen i Norge: en kriminalfortelling, Aschehougs forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1955.

Tanker om norsk diktning, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1955.

Fakta og forvrengninger i sprogsaken: tre artikler, Foreldreaksjonen mot Samnorsk (Oslo, Norway) 1958.

Ettertanker: etterlatte essays og artikler, edited by Asbjφrn Villum, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1980.

EDITOR

Knut Hamsun, Olaf Norlis forlag (Kristiania, Norway), 1920.

(With Francis Bull and Carl Nærup) Knut Hamsun: festskrift til 70 aarsdagen, 4. August 1929, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Kristiania, Norway), 1929.

(And author of introduction) Ossietzky talar: en antologi, edited by Kurt Singer, A. Holmströms förlag (Stockholm, Sweden), 1937.

50 gule, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1939.

(Also coauthor, with Eyvind Johnson) Som en av våra egna, ett samtal om norska böcker och svenska, Albert Bonniers (Stockholm, Sweden), 1944.

(With Johan Borgen) Dikt i utvalg, Nordahl Grieg, Albert Bonniers (Stockholm, Sweden), 1944.

(With Rolv Thesen) Festskrift til Helge Krog på sekstiårsdagen, Aschehoug (Oslo, Norway), 1949.

All verdens fortellere: i utvalg, Bokhandlerkjeden Libris (Oslo, Norway), 1950.

(With Karl Werner Gullers) Norge, glimt fra et stort lite land, Tiden Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1951.

(Also coauthor, with Eyvind Johnson and Paul La Cour) Mellem håb og frykt, H. Reitzel (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1952.

Blix, en kavalkade gjennom 50 år, Dreyers (Oslo, Norway), 1952.

(With Nils Lie) Knut Hamsun, Noveller, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1959.

Selsomme fortellinger fra hele verden, i utvalg, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1959.

Festskrift til Arnulf φverland pa syttiårsdagen 27.April 1959, Aschehoug (Oslo, Norway), 1959.

De siste en og femti gule, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1959.

Litteraere essays, Dreyer (Oslo, Norway), 1990.

OTHER

(Translator) William Faulkner, En rose til Emily (translation of A Rose for Emily), Hasselbalch (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1952.

Also author of plays Mot muren: skuespill i tre akter, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1930, and Don Juan: komedie (with Helge Krog), Aschehoug (Oslo, Norway), 1948. Translator of works by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, and others.

Author's works have been translated in English, German, and French.

ADAPTATIONS: Syndere i sommersol was made into a motion picture in Norway.

SIDELIGHTS: Sigurd Hoel was one of the most important literary figures in his native Norway, known not only for his own literary works, but also for his work as an editor, literary critic, and translator. Through his position as chief literary adviser to Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, one of Norway's major publishing companies, and as editor of the publisher's "Den gule" series of contemporary world literature in Norwegian translation, he introduced the works of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck, among others, to his countrymen. For over twenty years he was in fact Norway's "literary mid-wife."

Born in rural Nord-Odal in 1890, Hoel distinguished himself at an early age as a gifted student in math and science. He came to the capital city, Kristiania (now Oslo), in 1909, to study at the university. From his graduation until 1918, he taught math and science in a local high school, then served as secretary to the Oslo Academy of Science from 1919 to 1924.

Hoel made his literary debut in 1922 with Veien vi går, a collection of short stories that established him as one of Norway's promising young authors. Syvstjernen, followed in 1924. Amanda Langemo wrote in Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century:"His real breakthrough, however, came with the publication of Syndere i sommersol, a witty, satirical story of postwar youth, who while accusing their elders of self-deception, themselves fall victim to their own duplicity." From that point on, Hoel, the boy from rural Nord-Odal, became an urban writer. Nonetheless, he would, in his later historical novels Arvestålet: Fortellingen om Håvard Gjermundsson Viland: Ungdommen and Trollringen, use material from his rural background.

The author's first encounter with Nazism, which would have a major impact on an entire generation of Norwegian intellectuals, came during his stay in Berlin in 1931–32, where his wife was studying psychoanalysis. Hoel, like so many other Norwegian intellectuals, had to flee to Sweden during the German occupation of Norway in World War II. His novels Mφte ved milepelen, Jeg er blitt glad i en annen, and Stevmemφte med glemte år all deal with the war years, as do several of his essays from the same period.

Hoel's stay in Berlin and his exposure to Sigmund Freud and Freud's psychoanalytical theories also resulted in a major psychological novel, Fjorten dage fφr frostnaetterne. Again according to Langemo, "The influence of Freud is clearly reflected in this novel as well as in many of Hoel's narratives and essays, in which he shows that the feelings of lack of fulfillment in adults are traceable to fear-and anxiety-ridden years of childhood."

Apart from Arvestålet and Trollringen, and in spite of his rural childhood, most of Hoel's novels deal with urban life, and with infidelity in marriage. The conflict between rationalism and faith is also present in most of his works.

Norwegian poet André Bjerke wrote in an obituary in Dagbladet that if Hoel had written in English, he "would have had a world reputation." His novels have, however, been translated into a variety of languages. In addition, his work as translator and editor secured his place as one of Norway's most important literary influences during the twentieth century.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Bien, Horst, Begegnung am Meilenstein, Hinstorf (Rostock, Germany), 1970.

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Hauge, Ingard, Kvinner og bφker: Festskrift til Ellisiv Steen på hennes 70-årsdag, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1978.

Egeland, Kjφlv, Fremmede digtere i det 20. århundrede, Sven M. Kristiansen and J. B. Friis Hansen, coeditors, G. E. C. Gad (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1968.

Inadomi, Masahiko, Den plettfrie, Universitetsforlaget (Oslo, Norway), 1968.

Jensen, Brigt, Sigurd Hoel om seg selv, Norske Bokklubben (Oslo, Norway), 1981.

Mylius, J.E. de, Sigurd Hoel—befrieren i fugleham, Universitetsforlag (Odense, Denmark), 1972.

Tvinnereim, Audun, Risens hjerte-en studie i Sigurd Hoels forfatterskap, Gyldendal norsk forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1975.

Tvinnereim, Audun, Sigurd Hoel og Wilhelm Reich, University of Iceland Institute of Literary Research (Rekjavik, Iceland), 1975.

Wamberg, Niels Berger, editor, Sandemoses Ansigter, Schonberg (Copenhagen, Denmark), 1969.

PERIODICALS

Andvari, Volume 93, 1968, pp. 125-132.

Choice, July-August, 1992, R. R. Kettler, review of The Troll Circle, p. 1684; March, 1996, J. R. Cox, review of The Road to the World's End, p. 1139.

Edda, Volume 52, 1965, Arne Roed, "Sommernatt og sommersol," pp. 65-92, Arne Tvinnerheim, Arvestålet og Trollringen," pp. 93-110, and Stein Ytreberg, "Om pessimisme og optimisme hos Sigurd Hoel," pp. 315-324; Volume 54, 1967, Johannes Vaeth, "Sandemose, Hoel og brevet som blev til En flyktning krysser sitt spor," pp. 190-203; Volume 55, 1968, Svein Johansen, "Livsmφnster og livsfylde: En studie i Sigurd Hoels forfatterskap," pp. 321-338; Volume 56, 1969, Lars-Erik Johansson, "Komposisjonen i Sigurd Hoels Mφte ved milepelen," pp. 244-268; Volume 4, 1984, Sverre Lyngstad, "Sigurd Hoel and American Literature," pp. 193-204; Volume 2, 1993, Helje Kringlebotn Sφdal, "Sigurd Hoel og kristendommen: En analyse av kristen innflytelse i Hoels skjφnnlitteratur," pp. 153-167.

Hudson Review, winter, 1993, David Mason, review of The Troll Circle, p. 652.

Kirke og Kultur, number 92, 1977, Gunnar Bonsaksen, "Sigurd Hoel og kristendommen," pp. 188-192.

Maal og Minne, 1974, Synnφve Munthe, "Sammensatte ord-en frekvensundersφkelse," pp. 90-108.

New York Times Book Review, January 7, 1996, James Polk, review of The Road to the World's End, p. 20.

Norsk Litteraer Årbok, 1972, Jorund Mannsaker, "Kjærleikssviket-et sentralmotiv i Sigurd Hoels dikting," pp. 35-50; 1973, Audun Tvinnereim, "Sigurd Hoels novelle Elske hverandre i lys av Wilhelm Reichs seksualφkonomiske teorier," pp. 40-64, and Jorunn H. Aarbakke, "Sigurd Hoels novelle 'Spleen' og psykoanalysen," pp. 64-76; 1985, Rolf Nyboe Nettum, "Sigurd Hoel og tysk ekspresjonisme: Romanen Syvstjernen—med en fotnote om nære ting," pp. 43-56.

Notes on Mississippi Writers, Volume 15, number 2, 1983, Hans H. Skei, "A Note on the First Faulkner Translation and a 1932 Essay on Faulkner," pp. 73-77.

Profil, Volume 28, number 2, 1970, "Etterpåklokskap ved milepelen," pp. 19-21.

Samtiden, Volume 74, 1965, Petter Larsen, "Noen notater i margen-i Sigurd Hoels dikning," pp. 500-504; Volume 87, 1978, Gunnar Bonsaker, "Arvestålet, Sigurd Hoels miskjente roman," pp. 313-320; Volume 5, 1989, Gunnar Iversen, "Sigurd Hoel og Carl Th. Dreyer: To kunstneres mφte," pp. 73-75.

Scandinavian Studies, summer, 1993, Leslie Anne Grove, review of The Troll Circle, p. 452; spring, 2003, Jan Sjavik, review of Sinners in Summertime, p. 126.

Scandinavica, Volume 22, number 2, 1983, Sverre Lyngstad, "Sigurd Hoel: The Literary Critic," pp. 141-158.

Schweizer Monatshefte, number 48, 1968, Josef B. Michl, "Franz Kafka und die moderne skandinavische literatur," pp. 57-71.

Vinduet, Volume 27, number 4, 1973, Georg Johannesen, "Forskningsfeltet Norge: Sigurd Hoels Mφte ved milepelen," pp. 1-20; Volume 46, number 2, 1992, Helge Nordahl, "Sigurd Hoel, aforistikeren," pp. 19-24.