Rud, Nils Johan 1908–1993

PERSONAL: Born 1908, in Ringsaker, Norway; died 1993; married Aase Gudlaug Hellum; children: three sons, one daughter.

CAREER: Writer and editor. Editor of Arbeider-magasinet, 1932–93.

WRITINGS:

Gutter på skoggang: en fortelling om to gutters liv I frisk luft, skog og mark, Aschenhoug (Oslo, Norway), 1928, reprinted, Fabritius (Oslo, Norway), 1978.

Speidersaga: lit tom landsens speidergutter, Simonsen (Oslo, Norway), 1929.

Karsemne: gutterfortelling, Aschenhoug (Oslo, Norway), 1930, second revised edition, Fabritius (Oslo, Norway), 1979.

Vi skal ha et barn: roman, Fram Forlag (Oslo, Norway), 1933.

Så stjeler vi et fattighus (novel), Tiden (Oslo, Norway), 1934.

Jeg er ingen proletar (novel), Tiden (Oslo, Norway), 1935.

Alle tiders største (novel), Tiden (Oslo, Norway), 1936.

Han tør ikke være alene, Tiden (Oslo, Norway), 1938.

Godt mot, menneske, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1940.

Drivende grenser (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1941.

Jakten och Kvinnen (novel; title means "The Hunt and the Woman"), Skoglund (Stockholm, Sweden), 1942, published as Jakten og Kvinnen, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1947.

Fri jord, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1945.

Fredens sønner (novel; title means "The Sons of Peace"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1947.

Kvinner i advent (novel; title means "Women in Advent"), (Oslo, Norway), 1948.

Vi var jordens elskere (novel; title means "We Were the Lovers of the Earth"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1949.

Markus og bålene (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1951.

Både vinter og vår: noveller, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1952.

Piggtråden blomstrer (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1954.

Oppfordring til dans (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1957.

Ettersøkte er atten år (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1958.

Det var en lørdag aften: noveller, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1959.

Ørretsommer og rypehøst, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1961.

Min ungdom var en annens (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1963.

Eiréne (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1966.

Veier for fot: epistler og historier, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1967.

Eros leker: noveller, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1969.

Barna som gikk for å hente våren, Barnebladet Magne (Oslo, Norway), 1970.

Brønnen (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1971.

Andrik og tønnetrollet, Barnebladet Magne (Oslo, Norway), 1971.

Noveller i utvalg, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1972.

TV-rømlingen, Barnebladet Magne (Oslo, Norway), 1972.

Av et halvt hundre år, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1973.

(With Borghild Rud) Ole soppnisse, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1974.

Evjene (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1975.

Alf prøysen, Tiden (Oslo, Norway), 1976.

Gå hvor du har drømt (title means "Go Where You Have Dreamed"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1978.

Breen blomstrer: samtaler over min skigard, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1980.

Stifinnere: fortellinger, Fabritius (Oslo, Norway), 1980.

Ekko i det gamle tun (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1982.

Fra alder til alder: epistler og historier, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1985.

Spinnehjulet (title means "The Spinning Wheel"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1986.

Det har ventet på deg (novel), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1988.

Eros på folkemunne: vårt lille folkeeventyr, Cappelen (Oslo, Norway), 1989.

Gammel manns høysang: noveller, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1990.

Folk på folkemunne, Cappelen (Oslo, Norway), 1990.

Det muntre norge: på folkemunne, Cappelen (Oslo, Norway), 1991.

Vår egen humor: på folkemunne, Cappelen (Oslo, Norway), 1992.

En fremmed i speilet (title means "A Stranger in the Mirror"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1993.

SIDELIGHTS: Nils Johan Rud was born in Ringsaker, a town north of Oslo, Norway. When he was fifteen years old, he had to find work to support his family, but he wrote in his spare time, and soon became well known. In 1932 he became editor of Arbeider-magasinet, a popular periodical that welcomed new writers. In his early novels, Rud explored the predicament of poor clerical workers, but by 1939, when Jakten og Kvinnen was published, he had moved on to a theme that would recur throughout the rest of his life: the relationship of humans to nature. Rud often viewed women as more akin to nature than men, and presented them in an almost worshipful manner.

Of his later novels, the best known comprise the trilogy made up of the books Fredens sønner, Kvinner i advent, and Vi var jordens elskere. These novels describe a farmer who must leave his land to go to war, and who later returns to his home. In Gå hvor du har drømt Rud depicts an old man who returns to his childhood home.

In World Literature Today Amanda Langemo wrote that few Norwegian novelists or essayists "have enjoyed a longer and more prolific career than Nils Johan Rud." She described one of Rud's books, En fremmed i speilet, as "spellbinding, compact, and beautiful." The novel tells of a lonely widower who passes the time by looking through photo albums of his past. One day he sees a stranger in the mirror in his hallway, and realizes that though he had thought he knew himself, in reality "no one is completely knowable," according to Langemo.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Profil, Volume 30, issue 2, 1972, "Magasinet—tomrom som ma fylles," p. 16.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1994, Amanda Langemo, review of En fremmed i speilet, p. 835.