Society of Young Nigerian Writers Jeppe Aakjaer

Jeppe Aakjaer (1866-1930), Danish writer, a leading regional and social-protest author from the Jutland peninsula, who is read today as a lyric poet rather than as a novelist. The novel Vredens børn, et tyendes saga (Children of Wrath: A Hired Man's Saga, 1904) helped bring some small improvements for rural workers. Rugens sange (Songs of the Rye, 1906) is his best-known work. He became known as the Danish Burns because his work somewhat resembles that of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Danish author, whose fairy tales have been translated into more than 80 languages and have inspired plays, ballets, films, and works of sculpture and painting. Born in Odense, he suffered from poverty and neglect during his childhood, and when he was 14 years of age he ran away to . There he worked for Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Theater, until Collin raised money to provide him with an education.

Andersen had poetry and prose published and plays produced beginning in 1822. His first success was “A Walk from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829” (1829), a fantastic tale imitative of the style of German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann. Andersen's first novel, The Improviser (1835; translated 1845), was well received by critics, and his first book of fairy tales was published the same year. Andersen traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Africa and continued to write novels, plays, and travel books, but it was his more than 150 stories for children that established him as one of the great figures of world literature. Andersen's tales of fantasy, which include “The Ugly Duckling” (1843), “The Emperor's New Clothes” (1837), “The Snow Queen” (1844), “The Red Shoes” (1845), and “The Little Mermaid” (1837), were innovative in their handling of sophisticated feelings and ideas and in their use of the vocabulary and constructions of spoken language.

JENS IMMANUEL BAGGESEN

Jens Immanuel Baggesen (1764-1826), Danish poet, who introduced a high standard of elegance of form and diction in , profoundly influencing subsequent literary development. He won immediate recognition with the publication of Komiske Fortællinger (Comic Tales, 1785), stories in verse form. A staunch classicist, he became known as an uncompromising foe of the innovations of the romantic writers. Baggesen spent many years in Germany, France, and Switzerland. His most famous work, The Labyrinth (1791), describes his travels. Baggesen wrote many of his poems in German; the most important is Parthenaïs (1804), a long epic.

STEEN STEENSEN BLICHER

Steen Steensen Blicher (1782-1848), Danish lyric poet and novelist, born in Vium, Jutland. He is best known for his sympathetic and humorous telling of the folk tales, legends, and simple peasant chronicles of his native province, notably in the poems and stories written in the Jutland dialect and collectively entitled The Knitting Room (1842). His collected tales and sketches were published in 33 volumes (1920-34).

GEORG MORRIS COHEN BRANDES

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (1842-1927), Danish critic and biographer, who is regarded as one of the great systematic literary critics of modern times. He was born in Copenhagen and educated in law and philosophy at the . He adopted a broad, cosmopolitan view of literary history previously unknown in Scandinavia. After traveling widely in Europe, he returned in 1871 to lecture at the University of Copenhagen. Denied the professorship of aesthetics by university authorities because of his Jewish parentage, his outspoken atheism, and his generally radical views, Brandes went to Berlin in 1877 and lived there for five years, writing and lecturing. When he returned to , a group of admirers guaranteed him a yearly stipend as a private professor. His fame grew among scholars at home and abroad. When the Liberals gained power in 1892, the ministry gave Brandes a substantial pension, and in 1902 he was finally elected professor of aesthetics. Brandes's literary output consisted of 33 volumes of history, biography, and criticism.

Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen, pseudonym of Baroness Karen Christence Blixen-Finecke, née Dinesen (1885-1962), Danish writer, born in Rungsted. She studied painting in various European cities. In 1914 she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, and went to live in British East Africa (now Kenya) on a coffee plantation. After her divorce in 1921 she remained in Africa, returning to Denmark in 1931. Her first book of stories, Seven Gothic Tales (1934), dealt in highly polished and subtle prose with the world of the supernatural, as did most of her later fiction. Out of Africa (1937), which was made into a movie released in 1985, was based on her experiences on the plantation. Her only novel, The Angelic Avengers (1944; trans. 1947), was published under the name Pierre Andrézel; it describes in allegorical terms the plight of Denmark during the German occupation in World War II.

Dinesen's later works include Winter's Tales (1943); Last Tales (1957), another collection of stories of the supernatural; and Shadows on the Grass (1960), sketches of African life. She wrote both the Danish version and the English version of all her works.

Carl-Theodor Dreyer

Carl-Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968), Danish motion-picture director and screenwriter, noted for his portrayals of self-sacrifice and human suffering. Born in Copenhagen, he was adopted by the Dreyer family in 1891 after two years in foster homes. In 1910 he became a journalist and by 1913 entered the Danish film industry as a caption writer for Nordisk Films Kompagni. Dreyer became a full- time screenwriter in 1915 and made his first film, Praesidenten (ThePresident), in 1919.

The film Blade af Satans Bog (Leaves from Satan’s Book, 1921) established Dreyer’s credentials as a director with high artistic standards. The concern for close-ups and slow pacing evident in this film also appears in La Passion deJeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928), which he filmed in France. This silent film explores the psychological state of its 15th-century French heroine on the eve of her death. The production took one and one-half years to complete and proved a great critical success. His next film, Vampyr (Vampire, 1932), a supernatural tale that blends fantasy and reality, received mixed reviews. Dreyer withdrew from filmmaking afterward and returned to journalism in Denmark. In 1942 he made a comeback with a documentary short for the Danish government called Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath), about a woman falsely accused of being a witch. The film’s allusions to the Nazi occupation of Denmark during World War II (1939-1945) placed Dreyer in danger and he fled to neutral Sweden. After the war, Dreyer returned to Denmark and worked as manager of a Copenhagen motion-picture theater while researching material for subsequent films, such as Ordet (The Word, 1955). His final film, Gertrud (Gertrude, 1964), portrays a woman who, in search of passion, leaves her husband for a younger man. The film met with a mixed response from critics because of its slow pace and reserved tone.

JOHANNES EWALD

Johannes Ewald (1743-1781), Danish dramatist and lyric poet, born in Copenhagen, and educated at the University of Copenhagen. His Elegies (1766), written on the death of Frederick V, established his reputation as a poet. His biblical drama Adam og Eva was rejected by the Society of Arts in 1767 and its publication delayed until 1769. During the next decade Ewald wrote many brilliant works in tragedy, comedy, and farce, including Rolf Krage (1770) and the heroic drama Balder's Death (1774; trans. 1899), the first Danish drama to be composed in iambic pentameter and one that revived interest in the ancient history and mythology of Scandinavia. His finest work, the lyrical drama Fiskerne (The Fishermen, 1779), contains the lyrics to “King Christian Stood by the Lofty Mast,” which later became the Danish national anthem. Ewald founded the Danish Literary Society in 1775 and influenced the work of many later writers.

Karl Adolph Gjellerup

Karl Adolph Gjellerup (1857-1919), Danish writer and Nobel laureate, born on the island of Sjælland. He studied theology, but later became an atheist under the influence of the Danish literary critic Georg Morris Brandes. After 1892 Gjellerup lived in Germany; many of his writings are in German and demonstrate his admiration for the humanistic and mystical side of German culture. His last writings also show a preoccupation with Buddhism. Among his works are the novels En idealist (1878), Minna (1889; trans. 1913), and The Pilgrim Kamanita (1906; trans. 1911). Gjellerup was also a poet and a playwright. He shared the 1917 in literature with the Danish novelist Henrik Pontoppidan.

Ludvig Holberg

Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), Danish writer, considered the founder of Danish literature. He was born in Bergen, Norway, and educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Oxford. He taught at the University of Copenhagen and in 1747 was made baron Holberg.

At a time when the only literary use of Danish was in hymns and ballads, and plays on the Danish stage were given only in German or French, Holberg wrote a vast body of dramatic, poetic, and historical works that almost by themselves established Danish as a literary language. In all, he wrote more than a dozen successfully performed plays in Danish. They include the comedies Den Vaegelsindede (The Waverer, 1722) and Henrik eg Pernille (1724). His poem Pedar Paars (1719; translated 1962), a satire on contemporary manners, is a Danish classic. Other verse satires are Metamorphosis (1726) and Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey (1741; translated 1960). Holberg also wrote a history of Denmark and a volume of philosophical essays. His letters were published in five volumes between 1748 and 1754.

JOHANNES V. JENSEN

Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950), Danish writer, born in Farsø, Jutland, and educated at the University of Copenhagen. His writings are notable for their profound understanding and sympathetic portrayal of humble people. He first gained recognition for Himmerlandshistorier (Tales from the Himmerland, 3 volumes, 1898-1910), a collection of folktales of the people of his native province. Jensen was deeply interested in the theory of evolution and is best known for a series of six novels (1909-20) in which he expounded his view of the development of humankind from savagery to lofty intellectual aspiration. These novels were combined (1938) into two volumes under the title Den Lange Rejse, after they had been translated into English under the title The Long Journey (3 volumes, 1922-24). Jensen, who wrote more than 60 volumes of poetry, plays, and novels, was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in literature.

Kaj Harald Leininger Munk

Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (1898-1944), Danish playwright and clergyman. His plays, although traditional in form, with strong religious overtones, sparked a revival of Danish drama in the 1930s. Munk's most successful works were Herod the King (1928); Ordet (1932), translated as The Word, a miracle play set in modern Jutland; and He Sits at the Melting Pot (1938), an anti-Nazi drama. All three were published in translation in Five Plays (1953). For his outspoken opposition to the Nazis, expressed in his dramas and sermons, Munk was executed during the German occupation of Denmark

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger (1779-1850), Danish poet and dramatist, who was the leader of the romantic movement in Danish literature. He was born in Copenhagen. In his writings he was influenced by German romanticism and Old Norse sagas. His first published volume of verse was Digte (Poems, 1803). He traveled throughout Europe from 1805 to 1809, returning to Denmark to become professor of aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen. Most of his plays are based on Scandinavian history or Norse mythology. They include the lyric drama Sanct- Hansaften-Spil (St. John's Eve Play, 1803) and the historical tragedies Hakon Jarl (Earl Hakon, 1807), Baldur hin Gode (Baldur the Good, 1808), and Axel and Valborg (1809; trans. 1851). Other important works are the tragedy Correggio (1811; trans. 1846) and the fantasy in verse Aladdin of the Wonderful Lamp (1820; trans. 1857).

Henrik Pontoppidan

Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943), Danish novelist, born in , and educated as an engineer at the Polytechnic Institute in Copenhagen. He worked as a journalist until he turned (circa 1880) to writing fiction. In his novels he was an accurate observer of social and political life among the Danish peasantry. He shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in literature with the Danish writer Karl Gjellerup. Pontoppidan's first novel cycle, Det Forjättede Land (1891-95), is about the life of a Danish clergyman; it includes Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896), The Promised Land (1896), and the untranslated Dommens Dag (Day of Judgment, 1895). His major work, the autobiographical Lykke-Per (Lucky Peter, 5 volumes, 1898-1904), reflects his dissatisfaction with his bourgeois Protestant upbringing. De Dödes Rige (Kingdom of the Dead, 5 volumes, 1912-16) describes the decade from 1900 to 1910 in Denmark.

Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen

Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (1879-1933), Danish explorer, ethnologist, and writer, born in Jakobshavn, Greenland, of Inuit descent, and educated at the University of Copenhagen. He spent 30 years exploring the Arctic regions and making ethnological studies of the Inuit. In 1910 he established the Thule station at Perlernerit (Cape York), Greenland, to serve as a base for expeditions. When he traveled over the ice sheet of Viscount Melville Sound in 1912, he became the first man to cross the Northwest Passage by dogsled. Rasmussen maintained that the Inuit derived from the same stock as the Native North American, originally migrating from Asia. His writings include Greenland by the Polar Sea (1919; trans. 1921) and Across Arctic America (1927; trans. 1927).