The Wild Years. The Life of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832–1875

In 1858, 15 year old Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson reads a newspaper article about the French February revolution, the revolt against Europe’s most powerful that is spreading from country to country, and something inside him awakens. It is a commitment and a belief in public education and future that he will carry with him for the rest of his life. In THE WILD YEARS  we follow Bjørnson from when he is an unknown and ambitious young man, until he is in the middle of his life. He becomes a crucial factor in the work towards creating a modern and democratic Norway. He makes the theatre a scene for real life. He inaugurates literary realism in the Nordic countries.
Edvard Hoem draws a powerful and clear portrait of this poet, politician, theatre manager and editor – unstoppable and committed in nearly every area of society. At the same time, he portrays Bjørnson as a human being among other human beings, as his friends’ friend, as Karoline’s husband and as a proud father. And never before has the friendship and disagreement between Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson been depicted so vividly. We accompany both of them from the beginning of their careers until they eventually go separate ways.
THE WILD YEARS  is the first volume of the biography on Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. The second and last volume will be published in 2010, one hundred years after Bjørnson’s death.

Praise for The Wild Years:

“Hoem is revealed to be a steady guide in this massive landscape. Here all stones are turned, connections are thought through, words weighed on golden scales.”

(Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen)

“Edvard Hoem takes Bjørnson seriously (…) Hoem attempts a story that is new in that it is told better than the old ones. And he succeeds. (…) Hoem’s work is overwhelmingly impressive, not just the work that was put into it, but the literary skill used. The reader is delighted many times.”

(Klassekampen)

“The fact that The Wild Years is an author’s biography is noticeable in the relaxed, engaged narration. The book is something so rare as an easily read heavy book.”

(Morgenbladet)

“An impressive biography (…) Hoem’s project is also unique since it is the first biography to cover the national poets entire life. (…) Romsdals Budstikke would like to congratulate Edvard Hoem with this first installment in such a large project. (…) The first volume shows that Edvard Hoem is the right man for the job. We are already looking forward to the second.”

(Romsdals Budstikke)

“Hoem’s biography about Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is an event in the realm of cultural history.”

(Bergens Tidende)

“It’s no joke, what Edvard Hoem has gotten himself into. But he may be the first person to accomplish writing a ‘whole’ biography about Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.(…) It is a mature man who is writing and analyzing (…) an unusually agile and clear language.”

(Dag og Tid)

“A fiction writer turns Bjørnson’s amazing life into a lively and personal story (…) he is true to his sources, but through the whole text the reader can feel the literary grip.”

(Fædrelandsvennen)

“The Wild Years (…) offers many eminent moments (…) The many family portraits Hoem paints through private letters are both rough and captivating. We meet the dreamer, the husband, the lover, the son, the father, the friend, and the enemy Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Hoem shows us, without a doubt, that he was an unusually interesting person.”

(Dagbladet)

“Impressive. (…) One cannot avoid being fascinated by [Bjørnson’s] stormy life, and Edvard Hoem shows great insight into both the era and the person.”

(Vårt Land)

“Grand biography about a grand man.(…) Hoem masters the art of balancing the personal life drama with the public persona he was, and that is among the criteria a successful biography is judged by.”

(Adresseavisen)

“Edvard Hoem has written a fine story about the young Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. In crystal clear majestic prose – worthy of a Bjørnson. (…) First and foremost this is Hoem’s book, he actually - as the first of Bjørnson’s many biographers – manages to discipline the partially chaotic life he is describing, so that it is possible to retell with both an interior and exterior coherence.”

(VG)

“a surprisingly vital work. [It] is a more complex, varied, and more compassionately drawn portrait of Bjørnson than any earlier biography has even come close to.(…) It is no exaggeration to say that this biography is likely to contribute to a new evaluation of Bjørnson’s importance and position.(…) Edvard Hoem has full control of his elegant and light pen.”

(Dagsavisen)

First published: 2009, Oktober
Edvard Hoem: Biography and Bibliography