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Norwegian poet and journalist. Jacobsen's career as a writer spanned
more than fifty years. He is one of Scandinavia's most distinguished
poets, who launched poetic modernism in Norway with his first book,
Jord og jern (1933). Jacobsen's work has been translated
into over twenty languages.
Rolf Jacobsen was born in Oslo (then called Kristiania), as the
son of Martin Julius Jacobsen, who had completed both medical and
dental school, and Marie (Nielsen) Jacobsen, a nurse. At the age
of six he moved with his family to Asnes, where Martin Jacobsen
had obtained a post as a school dentist. His mother, who had completed
one year of teacher's training, educated Rolf. In 1920 he moved
to Oslo and entered a private school. During these years his uncle,
who was a railway engineer, looked after him. Jacobson continued
his studies at the University of Oslo for five years without graduating.
Jacobsen's Fjord go jerk, written in free verse, introduced
the urban world, racing cars, airplanes, and electrical turbines.
Because of the choice of his subjects Jacobsen's work was connected
to Marineti and futurism, but his view was all but romantic. He
did not share the futurist's euphoria over modern inventions, the
beauty of "a roaring motorcar, which runs like a machine-gun," but
saw the interaction between manmade and natural objects complex.
Jacobsen's diverse literary and other artistic influences included
the poetic Edda, Carel Capek's play R.U.R., and Carl Sandburg's
poetry. The title of the collection, Earth and Iron, also
suggests a cyclic relationship between nature and technology.
In 1934 Jacobsen returned to Asnes to take care of his father.
He had joined a socialist intellectual group, Clarté, and in Asnes
he became a member of the Labour Party Leadership for Hedmark County.
In Asnes Jacobsen worked for the daily newspaper Kongsvinder
Arbeiderblad, which was supported by Labour. Jacobson's second
collection of poems, Vrimmel (1935) revealed his underlying
dismay at the destructiveness in modern civilization. Jacobsen rejected
Marinetti's manifesto, "We wish to glory war..." but predicted the
ominous emergence of the gas masks and machine guns.
In 1940 Jacobsen married Petra Tendø; they had two sons. When his
parents' marriage did not succeed, Jacobsen's own marriage was harmonious.
His wife died in 1985 and in his last book, Nattapent (1995),
Jacobsen published tender and mournful poems about their life together:
"Whoever loves for years / hasn't lived in vain."
World War II was a dark period in Jacobsen's life. Norway was invaded
by Germany in 1940. The Germans appointed Vidkun Quisling, who had
close ties with German Nazi leaders, prime minister. Norwegian population
remained firmly anti-Nazi. Quisling was later executed for high
treason. During the war Jacobsen signed and published in Kongsvinger
Arbeiderblad editorials that supported the German occupiers.
He was also a member of Norwegian National Socialist party. It is
probably true that Jacobsen never accepted the cult of the Führer
or the Holocaust, but when Norway was again free from the Nazi's,
Jacobsen was convicted of treason and sentenced to three-and-a-half
years hard labour. He wasn't the only author condemned - Knut Hamsun
was arrested for some time, and transferred to a psychiatric clinic
in Oslo.
After the war and hardships Jacobsen settled in Hamar, a city about
60 miles north of Oslo. He worked as a bookseller for ten years,
and then as a journalist and night editor for the newspaper Hamar
Stifstidende. In 1950 he converted to Catholicism, and in 1951,
after a hiatus of sixteen years, Jacobsen published his third collection
of poems, Fjertog. In this work and in Hemmelig liv
(1954), Jacobsen explored the mystery and the beauty of the world,
and at the same time expressed his troubled compassion for it.
In Hamar Jacobsen lived in an old wooden house near Lake Mjøsa
and the railroad. These surroundings he also described in his poems.
Jacobson's later books include Pass for dørene - dørene lukkes
(1972), Pusteøvelse (1975), and Tenk på noe annet
(1979). In the course of his long career, Jacobsen received many
honours, among them membership in the Norwegian Academy of Language
and Literature, the Doubloug Prize (1968), the Grand Nordic Prize
(1989) from the Swedish Academy. - Jacobsen died on February 20,
1994.
"There is no end to the stars and the wind.
There is only you yourself,
who aren't who you think you are."
For further reading: Encyclopaedia of the World Literature,
ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 2); World Authors 1985-1990,
ed. by Vineta Colby (1995); A History of Norwegian Literature,
ed. by H.S. Naess (1993) - Note: quotations from Jacobsen's
poems are from Roger Greenwald's translation The Silence Afterwards
(1994) - Finnish Futurism, see Mika Waltari and Olavi Paavolainen
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