Johan Bojer

Johan Bojer was a Norwegian author. Several of Bojer’s books described the life of ordinary people and the beauty of the landscape of his native Trøndelag region in a simple, naturalistic language. His most important books include his major work Den siste viking (The Last of the Vikings) about the Trøndelag fishermen on the Lofoten islands and the autobiographical Læregutt.

Bojer was the son of an unmarried woman, who worked as a maid in Trondheim. From the age of two, he grew up as a foster son of a family in Rissa. In his youth, he worked as a farmer and fisherman, and later as a sales representative, fish buyer, office worker, and accountant.

He made his debut as a writer in 1893 and adopted his father’s surname only after he died in 1894. From 1895-1915 Johan Bojer lived much of the time in Paris, where he met his famous compatriots Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) and August Strindberg (1849-1912) and decided to become a full-time writer. He received the Prix Langlois literary prize in 1908 in France for Troens makt (The Power of a Lie) and two of his children were also born in Paris.

From 1919 Bojer lived as a freelance writer on a country estate near Oslo. In 1923, he undertook a research trip to the USA for his emigrant novel Vår egen stamme (The Emigrants). In 1953, he was awarded the State Artist’s Salary.

Bojer’s writings were also very popular abroad. His books were translated into several languages, foremost into French, but also into Swedish, German, English, Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Italian, and Spanish.