Jonas Lie

Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie (Norwegian: [liː]; 6 November 1833 – 5 July 1908) was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright who, together with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Alexander Kielland, is considered one of the Four Greats of 19th-century Norwegian literature.

Background

Jonas Lie was born at Hokksund in Øvre Eiker in Buskerud county, Norway. His parents were Pauline Christine Tiller (1799–1877) and Mons Lie (1803–81). Five years after Jonas's birth, his father was appointed sheriff of Tromsø, which lies within the Arctic Circle, and young Jonas Lie spent six of the most impressionable years of his life at that remote port.

He was sent to the naval school at Fredriksværn; but his defective eyesight caused him to give up a career at sea. He transferred to the Bergen Cathedral School (Bergen katedralskole) in Bergen, and in 1851 entered the University of Christiania, where he made the acquaintance of Ibsen and Bjørnson. He graduated in law in 1857, and shortly afterwards began to practice at Kongsvinger, a town located between Lake Mjøsa and the border with Sweden.

Career

Clients were not numerous at Kongsvinger and Lie found time to write for the newspapers and became a frequent contributor to some of the Christiania journals. His first work was a volume of poems which appeared in 1866 and was not successful. During the four following years he devoted himself almost exclusively to journalism, working hard and without much reward, but acquiring the pen of a ready writer and obtaining command of a style which proved serviceable in his subsequent career.