Johan Bojer

Biography

Born in 1872 near Trondheim in Norway and raised by a foster family, writer Johan Bojer won critical acclaim for his novels exploring the plight of the poor farmers and fishermen of his generation. In 1923, he journeyed to Litchville, North Dakota, to research the lives of the Norwegian immigrants who settled there in the 1880s. The product of his visit became The Emigrants, originally published in Norwegian. Considered by many to be one of his greatest works, it is a rich study in Bojer's unique humanistic philosophy.

Married to Ellen Lous Lange in 1899, Bojer and his wife had three children. Famous internationally, especially in France where he lived for many years, Bojer was a contemporary of Norwegian writers Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset (the author of Kristen Lavransdatter which is also set in Rissa, near Trondheim). He died of pneumonia on July 3, 1959.

The Emigrants 

Bojer's novel of Norwegian emigrants in the 1880s tells of young villagers who leave the Old World to seek a better life. Their trek takes them to homesteads in LaMoure County, North Dakota, where they find that breaking the sod and surviving blizzards are easier than feeling at home in this new land. 

Website Links:

Website Devoted to Stadsbygd and Its People

www.haarsager.org/stadsbygd/Bojer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Bojer