Trygve Emanuel Gulbranssen (baptized Trygve Emanuel Gulbrandsen; 15 June 1894 – 10 October 1962) was a Norwegian novelist, businessman and journalist.
Gulbranssen is best known for writing the Bjørndal Trilogy – Og bakom synger skogene (1933), published in English as Beyond Sing the Woods; and Det blåser fra Dauingfjell (1934) and Ingen vei går utenom (1935), collectively translated under the English title The Wind from the Mountains.Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, edited by Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1942. His books were well received by critics and readers alike, and they have been translated into over 30 languages and sold more than 12 million copies. At one point prior to the outbreak of World War II, the popularity of the Trilogy made Gulbranssen the fourth-bestselling author worldwide, and the success of the American editions of his work secured for him the distinction of being the only Scandinavian author of fiction to be included in the prestigious List of Books Chosen for the White House – a collection of works of literature selected by U.S. publishers and presented to the White House in order to provide the president with a library of the very best in contemporary literature.Hoel, 1997, p. 134-135 His novels were later adapted for film, though he was disappointed with the results.
He was also well known as a sports journalist, writing primarily for the magazine Idrætsliv (Sports Life), which he produced together with Peder Christian Andersen and Einar Staff. He wrote many of his most famous and characteristic articles as a correspondent for Idrætsliv and Aftenposten during the Summer Olympics in the years between 1920 and 1936. He took a particular interest in track and field and sought to promote it as a sports manager for many years. He is also regarded – together with Nils Dahl – as the first person to have introduced orienteering to Norway.Hoel, 1997, p. 59
Gulbranssen's primary profession was tobacconist; in association with his business partners he imported tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and other items. The wholesale business he was a member of became the largest of its type in Norway under his leadership.Hoel, 1997, p. 48 He was a respected business man both inside and outside of Norway's borders, and he established many lifelong friendships during the course of his business trips around Europe.
In 1940, Gulbranssen moved with his family to a farm in Eidsberg, allowing him to realize his dream of being a farmer, and even though he did not personally participate in the daily chores, he invested a great deal of effort in the planning and management of the enterprise. Although he was a newcomer to the district, he did not isolate himself on the farm, and he maintained a good relationship with his neighbors. In 1955 he helped found the Mysen Rotary Club, where he actively participated as a charter member until his death in 1962.Hoel, 1997, p. 253
Background and childhood Trygve Gulbranssen was born on Molstad Farm on Enebakk Road in the Vålerenga neighborhood of Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1894. His parents were Christen Gulbrandsen (1863–1943) and Alette Gulbrandsen, born Alette Antonsdatter Dahl (1863–1941). He had two older brothers, Birger and Alfred, as well as three younger sisters, Camilla, Ragnhild Margrethe and Tora Elvira.
His father Christen was the son of a farmer and master carpenter named Johan Gulbrandsen (1826–1871) and Petrine Pedersdatter Nøklebye (1828–1909), both of whom descended from farmer families in Trøgstad, Østfold County. His mother Alette grew up on Vestre Dahl Farm in Skogbygda in Frogn, Akershus County. Her father was a farmer and freighter captain named Johan Anton Jørgensen Strandengen (died 1899) and mother Bolette Olsdatter, born Skau. Through relatives on his mother's side, Gulbranssen was connected with the villages in the Follo district.
Christen Gulbrandsen, a carpenter and master builder, provided a good living for his family by buying and renovating townhouses before reselling them. A shortage of housing led to rising prices in Kristiania, but in 1899 the housing bubble burst in what has subsequently become known as the Kristiania Crash. Gulbrandsen had attempted to spread out the risk by placing his fortune in multiple banks and by purchasing Solberg Farm in Trøgstad, but this strategy failed as bank after bank closed its doors. The lack of new renovation projects and the loss of all property and savings came as a hard blow for him. He went on to try his hand as a real estate broker, but never fully recovered from the sudden change in his fortunes.
The family rapidly went from being relatively wealthy to struggling to make both ends meet. Paradoxically, they kept on moving to gradually "nicer" addresses as the economy deteriorated, which probably resulted from the family taking up residence in some of the father's renovation projects.Hoel, 1997, p. 27-28. This source mentions that the family lived in the "regular" area above the National Hospital before the recession, but moved into addresses such as Frogner Road or after the economy had gone into decline. On account of the father's business, there were many changes of residence, which caused the young Gulbranssen to lose contact with his friends and grow lonely. He wrote about this period of his life:
Gulbranssen wrote this and many other notes about childhood with the intent of writing a book about the trials of growing up in Kristiania around 1900, but those plans never came to fruition.
In 1901 Gulbranssen lost his two-year-old sister Ragnhild Margrethe to dysentery, which she had contracted through contaminated well water.
When his maternal grandfather's farm was sold in 1906, Gulbranssen lost the only constant in his family's otherwise unpredictable city life. Both Gulbranssen and the other children took it hard. From an early age, he nurtured an interest for the agrarian life of Eastern Norway. But it wasn't until he came across the prayer book D. Jens Dinnysøn Jersins Tvende Opbyggelige Skrifter during one of the family's many moves that his interest in family history and the ideas that would mature in his later works really started to take hold. The prayer book, which had belonged to his great-great-grandfather Ole Christophersen Biørnebecks got him to ask his mother about their family origin. His mother was a good storyteller, and the stories she relayed were conscientiously noted by the young Gulbranssen, and later provided inspiration for many of the stories in his books.
Into adolescence and out into the workforce
Gulbranssen had a tough childhood where the family often struggled to get enough money to put food on the table, and he went to work early on to help support his family. As a nine-year-old, he started out as a courier and ran errands, initially for private individuals and family, and later for haberdashers, butchers, cobblers, dairies, fishmongers, coal merchants, and many types of businesses and stores in Kristiania.
During an errand in 1906, he was supposed to deliver food from a delicatessen to Henrik Ibsen's home on Arbins Street. While he was there, he was asked whether he would like to see the deceased writer on his deathbed, but he became frightened and ran down the stairs.Hoel, 1997, p. 33.
In spite of his difficult work as a courier, Gulbranssen still did rather well in school. He attended Uranienborg School in Briskeby, worked hard earning good grades, did well on his examinations, and completed vocational school with top marks.Hoel, 1997, p. 34 The difficult life as a courier made it so that school work, and especially reading, became a haven allowing him to escape into his imagination. He seized every opportunity to read – surreptitiously under the desk at school, walking in the street, and while chopping wood or running errands.Hoel, 1997, p. 35
Drawing
Gulbranssen demonstrated a talent for drawing at an early age, and attended a number of drawing schools starting at age twelve. At age fifteen he produced a series of humorous drawings which he sent to a Danish joke magazine, securing for himself a small amount of supplementary income in the process. He enrolled in the Royal Norwegian Art and Handicraft School in the fall of 1909. This was a night school, where, with the exception of a hiatus in 1911, he continued his studies until 1916. In 1914, a drawing of a horse that he had made was selected for the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition.Hoel, 1997, p. 38 One of his professors once said to him while Gulbranssen was enlarging a drawing: "Take life in its true proportions; it is hard enough as it is. By reshaping it, one is apt to find small joys and large sorrows. Follow it exactly as it is, take hold of what is important, remain simple. I am showing you an essential truth: simplicity is life's greatest art." Gulbranssen found good use for this advice in the course of writing his books.Hoel, 1997, s. 39
The famous artist Trygve M. Davidsen, who attended art school together with Gulbranssen, remarked that he had heard that Gulbranssen did not have a diploma: "That is strange; you got better grades than me!" Later, in February 1955, Gulbranssen was presented with a diploma that Davidsen had made with Gulbranssen's grades attested by school chancellor Jacob Tostrup Prytz.Hoel, 1997, p. 40 Gulbranssen had, among other things, received perfect or near-perfect marks in free-hand drawing.
Steady work at the Excelsior glue factory
Since the family could not afford to send him on to secondary school, Gulbranssen was obliged to discontinue his formal education after seven years of elementary school. On 31 March 1908, just one month after graduating and barely fourteen years old, he was already employed as a clerk at the Excelsior Glue Factory, Inc. He started out as an assistant – a position he would continue to hold for the first five years.
While working at Excelsior, Gulbranssen took several courses and night schools, including a two-year business course at the Christiania Municipal School of Continuing Education for boys during the period 1910–1913, as well as additional courses in bookkeeping and English. He completed the classes with flying colors and received the highest marks in all subjects.Hoel, 1997, p. 41 He also got promoted to bookkeeper and cashier, continuing in these positions for the next three and a half years. In all, Gulbranssen worked eight years at Excelsior before leaving the company with the highest recommendations and without any absences for illness.Hoel, 1997, p. 41 This is related in a letter of recommendation from Excelsior signed by J. Gullichsen.
The time spent at Excelsior provided Gulbranssen with experience and life lessons in addition to all the knowledge he gained. The factory was engaged in the production of animal glue, where the raw materials were carcasses and animal skeletons, and there were several ugly accidents and tragedies that certainly made an impression on the young Trygve Gulbranssen. He spent most of the time in the office, but would often visit the shop floor to learn about the tiresome conditions of regular workers – an experience which may have been important later on when he sought to describe the toil of the very same kind of people in his novels.Hoel, 1997, p. 43
Daily life in Brugata No. 1