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Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | | Copyright

Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth (1848–95), Norwegian‐born author and educator, emigrated to the U.S. in 1869. As professor of German at Cornell and Columbia, he was considered stimulating rather than scholarly, although his Goethe and Schiller (1879) and Essays on Scandinavian Literature (1895) were sound treatments of their subjects. He wrote many works of fiction for adults and children and some poetry, but is best known for four novels, Gunnar (1874), a tale of Norwegian life, established his lifelong friendship with Howells, who influenced his later works. Turning against the romanticism of Gunnar, Boyesen denounced the subservience of writers to the standards of the young American girl, “the Iron Madonna who strangles in her fond embrace the American novelist.” Influenced by Howells, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Björnson, he wrote The Mammon of Unrighteousness (1891), a realistic urban study, contrasting two brothers, one a social idealist, the other a ruthless politician. The Golden Calf (1892) portrays the disintegration of a young man's ideals when he is tempted by wealth. The Social Strugglers (1893) is the best of these novels, although lighter and less incisive in its criticism and vague in its social implications.
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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BoyesenHjalmarHjorth.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BoyesenHjalmarHjorth.html

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Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen , 1848–95, American writer, b. Norway, educated at the universities of Leipzig and Christiania (Ph.D., 1868). He came to the United States in 1869 and became editor of Fremad, a Norwegian weekly published in Chicago. Later he was a professor at Cornell and Columbia universities; his scholarly works include Goethe and Schiller (1879) and Essays on Scandinavian Literature (1895). Boyesen is best remembered for his fiction, including Gunnar (1874), a romance of Norwegian life, and such realistic urban novels as The Mammon of Unrighteousness (1891) and The Social Strugglers (1893).

Bibliography: See biography by C. A. Glasrud (1963).

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"Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Boyesen.html

"Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Boyesen.html

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