Hanna Astrup Larsen

Hanna Astrup Larsen (Decorah, 1873-Elmsford, 1945) was a Norwegian-American writer, literary editor, and translator.

Larsen is best known from her editing roles with the American-Scandinavian Review (where she was literary editor from 1913 until 1921, when she was appointed editor). In 1921, Larsen was also appointed as the literary secretary of The American Scandinavian Foundation;[1] in this role, she edited over 70 books published by that foundation.[2]

Book cover for "Knut Hamsun"
Book cover for Knut Hamsun by author Hanna Astrup Larsen

Biography

Larsen was born in Decorah, Iowa on September 1, 1873, died in Elmsford, New York on December 3, 1945[3] and is buried in Lutheran Cemetery in Decorah, Iowa.[4]

Hanna Astrup Larsen's father, Peter Laurentius Larsen, was a notable Norwegian Lutheran educator who became the founding president of Luther College.[5]

Career

Hanna Astrup Larsen's early career began with editing roles at a number of Scandinavian-American newspapers, including the Norwegian language Amerika (Madison, Wisconsin) and the Swedish/English language Pacific Posten (San Francisco, California). Larsen then became special contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Call.[2]

From 1908-1912, Larsen was a contributing writer for newspapers and magazines in New York (including Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman, where she published articles featuring Swedish painter Anna Boberg[6] and the Elverhoj art colony in upstate New York).[7] Larsen would later write articles for The New York Times.[2]

Larsen was the author of Knut Hamsun (Alfred A. Knopf, 1922), a biography of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun;[8][9] she also wrote Selma Lagerlöf (Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1936),[10][11] a biography of the Swedish author; in 1909, Lagerlöf was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.[12]

Larsen was the editor of a number of Scandinavian-language story collections, including Norway's Best Stories (W. W. Norton & Co., 1928), Sweden's Best Stories (W. W. Norton & Co., 1928), and Denmark's Best Stories (W. W. Norton & Co., 1928).[2]

Larsen translated a number of Danish-language story collections and books, which were republished in the United States, including Jens Peter Jacobsen's Marie Grubbe (published in English in 1917) and Niels Lyhne (published in English in 1919) and Twelve Stories by Steen Steensen Blicher.[2][13]

Recognition

Hanna Astrup Larsen was acknowledged to be "the first female editor-in-chief of a Norwegian language paper in America" when she was hired by Olaf Tveitmoe, publisher of San Francisco-based, newspaper Pacific Posten.[14]

Awards

In the 1930s, Hanna Astrup Larsen received a number of international honors, including the Swedish Vasa Medal in 1931, the Norwegian Distinguished Service Medal in 1933, and the Royal Danish Medal of Merit in 1937.[5][2]

Works by Larsen

References
  1. "News and Notes: Our own Who's Who". The English Journal. 21 (4): 333. 1932. ISSN 0013-8274. JSTOR 804168.
  2. "Hanna A. Larsen, Editor, Author, 72 – Literary Chief of American Scandinavian Review Dies – Was Noted Translator". The New York Times. 5 December 1945. p. 24. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  3. Zippermann, Charles C. (1947). "Literary Landmarks of 1946". Books Abroad. 21 (1): 27–30. doi:10.2307/40086046. ISSN 0006-7431. JSTOR 40086046.
  4. "Anna Johanne "Hanna" Astrup Larsen (1873-1945) -..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  5. "Hanna Astrup Larsen". The Annals of Iowa. 27 (4): 327. 1946. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.6481. ISSN 0003-4827.
  6. "Anna Boberg's timeless Arctic landscapes". New Statesman. 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  7. Larsen, Hanna Astrup (September 1916). "The Craft Work on the 'Hill of Fairies". The Craftsman. 30: 634–637 – via Google Books.
  8. Marble, Annie Russell (1932). The Nobel prize winners in literature, 1901-1931. New York, London: D. Appleton and company. pp. 213–223.
  9. "Knut Hamsun -- From Cobbler to Author; KNUT HAMSUN. By Hanna Astrup Larsen. With portraits. 171 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $1.50". The New York Times. 1923-01-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  10. Larsen, Hanna Astrup (1936). Selma Lagerlöf. Internet Archive. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Doran & company, inc.
  11. Strauss, Harold (1936-10-11). "Selma Lagerlof's Varmland Countryside; SELMA LAGERLOF. By Hanna Astrup Larsen. Illustrate. 114 pp. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co. $1.50". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  12. "LAGERLÖF, SELMA | Meaning & Definition for UK English". Lexico Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  13. Bredsdorff, Elias (1948). "Review of Twelve Stories by Steen Steensen Blicher; Four Plays by Holberg". The Modern Language Review. 43 (1): 124–126. doi:10.2307/3718004. ISSN 0026-7937. JSTOR 3718004.
  14. STERBA, CHRISTOPHER M. (2016). "Transcultural San Francisco: Andrew Furuseth, Olaf Tveitmoe, and the Forgotten Scandinavian American Experience". Pacific Historical Review. 85 (1): 90. doi:10.1525/phr.2016.85.1.72. ISSN 0030-8684. JSTOR 26419586.
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