Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen was a Norwegian-born author and scholar who made significant contributions to American literature in the late 19th century. After completing his education in Norway and Germany, he emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-one, settling in Chicago, where he began his career as an assistant editor for a publication aimed at Scandinavian immigrants. Boyesen quickly became recognized for his literary talent, publishing poetry in well-known magazines like The Atlantic Monthly and crafting numerous short stories. He authored his first novel, "Gunnar," in 1874, which was aimed at American readers and set the stage for his subsequent works.
Throughout his career, Boyesen taught northern European languages at prestigious institutions such as Cornell and Columbia University, while also being an active member of New York's literary community. Over his lifetime, he produced a substantial body of work, including novels and scholarly essays, with "Essays on Scandinavian Literature" being published posthumously in 1895. His writings often reflected themes of urban realism and have been translated into several languages, highlighting his impact beyond American shores. Boyesen's legacy is marked by his ability to bridge cultural gaps through literature, making him a notable figure in the history of immigrant writers in the United States.
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Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
- Born: September 21, 1848
- Birthplace: Fredriksvern, Norway
- Died: October 4, 1895
Biography
Although born in Norway and educated there and in Germany, Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen made his mark at an early age in yet another country and in a third language. After studies in Christiana and Leipzig, he received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Norway and moved the next year, at age twenty-one, to Chicago. There he served as assistant editor of Fremad, a weekly publication for Scandinavian immigrants.
Within three years Boyesen was writing in English for the finest publishing concerns in America, with his poetry appearing in The Atlantic Monthly and short stories in other prominent periodicals. At the same time, he tutored university students in Greek and Latin and wrote his first novel, Gunnar, a Norwegian romance for American readers, in 1874. The same year he went abroad for further studies in Europe, returning to the United States in 1875 to teach northern European languages for six years at Cornell and for fourteen years at Columbia.
In New York, Boyesen helped establish an authors’ club. During the last twenty years of his short life, he produced a large body of literature, both creative and academic. Goethe and Schiller (1879) was one of the fruits of his Cornell years, while Essays on Scandinavian Literature (1895) appeared the year he died. After Gunnar, Boyesen went on to write twenty-three additional novels, many in the vein of urban realism. Works by Boyesen have been translated from English to Norwegian, German and Russian.