Johan Bojer update

I've just updated my essay on Johan Bojer (linked permanently on the left) based on links kindly provided to me by Karen Husdal Brevik of Orkanger of his 1872 christening (Orkdal parish) and 1887 confirmation records (Stadsbygd parish).  The specific page links seem to change over time, so I'm linking to the main group of kirkebok pages in each parish.  Note that you can switch languages among Bokmål, Nynorsk and English.

Bojer was a rissværing (person from Rissa) who wrote many successful novels published in both Norwegian and English.  A good library will have several of them.  His book, The Emigrants (Vor engen stamme in Norwegian), about emigrants from Stadsbygd parish to eastern North Dakota, is still available from AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell's.  The first two are used book dealers and have several other titles of his as well.  Be sure to look for The Last of the Vikings (Den siste viking), his most famous work, about rissværing fishermen in the Lofoten islands.

Both church documents mentioned above showed that his father (from Oslo and not married to Bojer's mother) was named as Hans Böier in the christening record and Hans Boier in the confirmation record.  Boier/Bojer is a Danish name which his father did not use in census and other records in which he is found, so I had erroneously thought that Bojer adopted it as a pseudonym after a trip to Denmark that he took his first book (for which he used the name Hansson) was published.

Comments

[Helen Rodney]

I am trying to find out more about Johan Bojer's time in France, and would like to know where his family papers are - in archives in Norway? with descendants? Many thanks!

[T. E. Leonard]

I wanted to share with like minded "Bojerian's" my high regards for one of the truly fine Norwegian authors of the twentieth century. His political and economic insights mirrored much of the dissilusionment held by the non-doctrinaire left in the aftermath of W.W.I.

I have written a considerable number of reviews of his novels on Amazon for those interested to learn more.