Sven Elvestad

Sven Elvestad was a Norwegian journalist and author who wrote under the pen names Stein Riverton and Kristian F. Biller. He is best known for his detective stories featuring the characters Asbjørn Krag and Knut Gribb, which were translated into several languages and adapted into films. He also wrote thrillers, historical novels, and semi-documentary reports. He was a prolific and popular writer who published 98 novels in his lifetime. He was also a sensational journalist who staged his own stunts, such as spending a day in a circus lion's cage. He was the first foreign reporter to interview Adolf Hitler in 1923, whom he described as "a dangerous man". He had a fascination with Germany and fascism, and visited Italy and Spain during the interwar period. He died of pneumonia in Skien in 1934, at the age of 50. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Norwegian crime fiction, and his legacy is honored by the Riverton Prize and the Riverton Club, which are named after his most famous pseudonym.