Gisken Wildenvey

Gisken Wildenvey (1964)

Gisken Wildenvey , born Jonette Pauline Andreassen (born March 23, 1892 in Austnesfjorden, Vågan municipality , Nordland ; †  January 14, 1985 in Larvik ) was a Norwegian writer.

life and work

Gisken Wildenvey grew up as the daughter of an impoverished farmer in Lofoten in northern Norway. At the age of seven she was taken care of by a postal worker and his family on Andøya . Barely grown, she moved to the capital Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1908 , where she found a job in the large department store Steen & Strøm . She tried early to establish herself artistically and took acting and dance lessons. However, she was advised against a stage career because she was too tall at 175 cm.

In autumn 1911 she met the poet Herman Wildenvey , who was already known throughout the country by that time , and whom she married on February 4, 1912 in the Vålerenga kirke (Vålerenga Church) in Kristiania. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Copenhagen, where they lived for almost ten years. In 1922, the Wildenveys' apartment was completely destroyed in a fire, so the couple decided to move back to Norway. They settled in Stavern (until 1930 Fredriksvern ) on the Skagerrak and from New Year 1928 lived in their own house in Hergisheim .

Three years earlier, in 1925, Gisken Wildenvey had made his debut with the volume of short stories Bedaarere (literally: beguiler), which was still coldly received by literary critics . It was on that occasion that she first went public with the first name Gisken - a nickname that she had probably received from her husband. Her novel Andrine , published in 1929, aroused enthusiasm , in which she describes the fate of a young girl from the north in a neo-realistic style of the twenties and thirties, who was born into miserable circumstances and as a foster daughter found herself in a strictly religious milieu. Even contemporary readers recognized the references to Gisken Wildenvey's own life. The book was published as a serial in several Norwegian newspapers. The follow-up volume Andrine og Kjell (Andrine and Kjell, 1934) achieved a circulation of 40,000 copies and was successfully filmed in 1952. The author received praise from, among others, Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset , who spoke of a “devoted and excellent book”. Two further Andrine volumes, which appeared in 1939 and 1955, but could no longer match the success of the first two books artistically and commercially, complete the tetralogy . Andrine og Kjell was translated into Swedish and German.

Her other publications include the novel Lang og tro tjeneste (Long and faithful service), published in 1964, which fictionally reflects the sometimes difficult coexistence with Herman Wildenvey. According to the author, this is her best book. In 1975, ten years before her death, she published her memoirs under the title Kjærlighet varer lengst (Love lasts longest).

In 1965 Gisken Wildenvey was awarded the legacy of the Gyldendal Norsk Forlag publishing house. Her grave is in the so-called Grove of Honor at Vår Frelsers Gravlund cemetery in Oslo.

bibliography

• Bedaarere , 1925 ( short stories)
• Andrine , 1929 (novel)
• Andrine og Kjell , 1934 (novel)
• Andrine og lykken , 1939 (novel)
• Mødrene har grædt , 1949 (novel)
• Andrine og den røde blomsten , 1955 (novel)
• Lang og tro tjeneste , 1964 (novel)
• Kjærlighet varer lengst , 1975 (memoir)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the church book of Vågan , arkivverket.no. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
2. ↑ Herman Wildenvey - mer enn en rimsmed! ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.wildenvey.com. Retrieved April 19, 2013. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Gisken Wildenvey , www.wildenvey.com. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
4. ↑ According to another account, she was already baptized with the name Gisken Jonette Pauline Kramer-Andreassen . See Gisken Wildenvey , Fylkesleksikon. nrk.no. Retrieved April 19, 2013.

Web links

• Tom Lotherington: Gisken Wildenvey . In: Store Norske Leksikon. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
• Gisken Wildenvey . Wildenvey Society website (Norwegian). Retrieved April 18, 2013.