About Tarjei Vesaas
Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian pronunciation: ['tɑrjæɪ 'veːsoːs]) (20 August 1897 – 15 March 1970) was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Vesaas is widely considered to be one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century and perhaps its most important since World War II. Vesaas' work is characterized by simple, terse, and symbolic prose. His stories often feature rural people who go through severe psychological changes. These works are characterized by their usage of the demanding Norwegian landscape and themes such as guilt and death. His mastery of the Nynorsk written language has contributed to its acceptance as a medium of world class literature. A prolific author, he won a number of awards, including the Gyldendal's Endowment in 1943 and the Dobloug Prize in 1957. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on 57 occasions—once in 1946, and then every year between 1950 and 1970, often receiving multiple nominations per year. His novels have been translated into 28 languages. Several of his books have been translated into English—many of them published by Peter Owen Publishers—among them Spring Night, The Birds, Through Naked Branches, and The Ice Palace. Vesaas sold his first short stories to a magazine in the early 1920s. Vesaas' first successful novel came with the release of Dei svarte hestane (The Black Horses) in 1928, after his previous works were adversely criticized.
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