Nils Lie

Having passed examen artium at the Bergen Cathedral School in 1919, Lie graduated with a cand.mag. degree in philology from the University of Oslo in 1925. In 1926 he was assigned as editor for the weekly family magazine Hjemmet. From 1935 he worked as a literary consultant for the publishing house Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. During the German occupation of Norway, he resigned his job at Gyldendal, and resided in London from 1942 to 1945. He continued his work for Gyldendal after the war, until his retirement in 1972.[1]

Lie translated a large number of books into Norwegian language, including works by Frans G. Bengtsson, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Steinbeck, Rudyard Kipling and Erich Kästner.[1] He was awarded the Bastian Prize in 1954 for his translation of a work by Alan Paton.[2] He received Arts Council Norway's translation prize in 1970.[3]

In 1923 Lie published the crime novel Bergenstoget plyndret inat!, written jointly with fellow student Nordahl Grieg under the pseudonym Jonathan Jerv.[3] The novel's narrative is a group of students in need of money that commit a robbery of train passengers on the railway from Bergen to Oslo, while the train up in the high mountains.[1] The book was basis for a silent film from 1928, directed by Uwe Jens Krafft.[4]

Further books are the children's book Trekløveret from 1924, and the novel På sporet for young adults from 1930. He also wrote a short biography of his distant relative, the writer Jonas Lie, and edited short story anthologies and poetry anthologies.[1]