Sigbjorn Obstfelder

Sigbjørn Obstfelder was a Norwegian writer and poet, who is considered one of the first modernists in Norwegian literature. He was born in Stavanger, Norway on November 21, 1866, as the eighth child in a family of sixteen. His mother died when he was fourteen, and his father was a distant and unsupportive figure. He studied engineering at the University of Christiania and the Christiania Technical School, but he never completed his degree. He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1890, where he worked as a draftsman for a bridge construction company. He returned to Norway in 1891, after suffering a nervous breakdown. He started writing poetry and prose, and published his first collection of poems, Digte (Poems), in 1893. This book is regarded as one of the earliest examples of modernism in Norwegian literature, as it expresses a sense of alienation, loneliness, and religious longing. He was influenced by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, and his poetry has been compared to the expressionist paintings of Edvard Munch. He also wrote and published short stories and a novel, The Cross, which deals with the themes of sexuality, madness, and death. He traveled extensively in Europe, and met several influential writers and artists, such as August Strindberg, Knut Hamsun, and Rainer Maria Rilke. He married Ingeborg Thaulow, a painter and the niece of the novelist Alexander Kielland, in 1898. He suffered from poor health throughout his life, and died of tuberculosis in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 29, 1900. He was buried at Vestre Cemetery. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Norwegian literature of the late 19th century, and his works have inspired many later writers and artists.