Tarjei Vesaas

Born Aug. 20, 1897, in Telemark. Norwegian author. Writes in Landsmaal.

His first novel was The Human Child (1923). The early books of Vesaas are filled with romantic symbolism, but by 1928 his novel Black Horses already showed realistic tendencies. The theme of the struggle of good and evil forces in man is treated in the cycle of novels Father’s Journey (1930), Sigrid Stallbrokk (1931), Those Unknown People (1932), and The Heart Does Not Forget the Fatherland (1938), as well as in his later works. The drama Ultimatum (1934) describes the prewar tension in an expressionistic manner. The novels The Great Play (1934) and The Woman Needs a Home (1935) are devoted to peasant life. The novel The Seed (1940) condemns violence. The novel House in the Dark (1945) and the play Morning Wind (1947) present pictures of occupied Norway. In some novels of the 1950’s the intensification of symbolism and deepening of pessimism are obvious, such as in The Signal (1950) and Spring Night (1954). Vesaas published collections of novellas (Winds, 1952) and of verse in the spirit of modernism.