Born Today November 6: Jonas Lie

1833-1908

Norwegian writer Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie was born on this date in Hokksund, in Øvre Elker, Norway. His father was in service, and at the age of five the elder Lie was appointed sheriff of Tromsø, which lies within the arctic circle. He most of his formative years were spent in this very remote region.  When older, he was sent to naval school, but his poor eyesight precluded him from serving in the Norwegian Navy.  He then transferred to attend Bergen Cathedral School; and in 1851, he entered the University of Christiania, where he was to make acquaintances with Bjørnstjeme Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen.  He graduated in 1857 with a degree in law.  He took to the practice of law the following year in Kongsvinger, a border town next to Sweden.  As this was a fairly isolated community, clients where few and far between; in the spare time allotted to him by the circumstance, he then began to write for the local newspaper.  By 1866 he had complete a full volume of poetry, which ultimately was not a success.  After this, he devoted himself solely to journalism when it came to writing, and by 1870, he was writing tales based on his brand of naturalistic reporting.  In this year, he published The Visionary Pictures From Nordland, a tale filled with far north superstitions and notions of the sea.  This would set him on the course of becoming a full time writer.  By 1874 the Norwegian Parliament had granted him an artists salary; money that he used to travel to add to his natural observational style of writing.  He would go on to pen several long tales in the form of novels and a few volumes of short stories, some of which bordered on gothic in nature.  In the world of film, not much has been made of his work; in all there are just 3 well known documented motion pictures based on his writing.   The first, and the only in the silent era, came in 1912 with The Commodore's Daughter  based on one of his novels.  It was a Danish film and was produced by the famed Nordisk Films.  Two Norwegian films have be produced from his work, the latest of which is the short drama Troll  in 1991.  Long married to Henriette Thomasine Lie, the aunt of the Norwegian/American painter who also went by the name Jonas Lie, the elder Jonas Lie died on 5 July in Fleskum in Andvika, less than a year after losing his wife.  He was buried in the famed Stavern Kirkegård cemetery in Norway, along with his wife.

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