Gunvor Hofmo (30 June 1921 – 17 October 1995) was a Norwegianwriter, often considered one of Norway's most influential modernist poets.[1]
Background
Gunvor Hofmo was born in Oslo, Norway. Her parents were Erling Hofmo (1893–1959) and Bertha Birkedal (1891–1969). She was raised in a working-class family
among socialists, communists and anti-Nazis. Her father's brother Rolf Hofmo (1898–1966) was a sports official who was arrested during World War II and imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[2][3]
Literary career
Hofmo started her literary career submitting poems for publication to a wide variety of presses, including the communist newspaper Friheten and weekly magazines such as Hjemmet. One of her first published poems was dedicated to her lover and Jewish refugee Ruth Maier (1920-1942).
It was published in Magasinet for Alle, opening with the lines:
The words, shiningly silent I shall find give them to you, hammer some moments together under the frame of eternity so you will never forget me
Ruth Maier was an Austrian native who had found refuge in Norway in 1939. During the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, Maier was arrested by German officials in Norway during 1942. She was deported and murdered during the Holocaust at Auschwitz. This event became by all accounts the central tragedy in Hofmo's life. She was hospitalized in 1943 for depression, starting a lifelong struggle with mental illness.[4]
Following the liberation of Norway in 1945, Hofmo traveled extensively. She was in Paris in the autumn of 1947 and in Brittany in the spring of 1950. She also made several trips to Copenhagen and also traveled to Stockholm, Amsterdam and London. She also wrote essays for publication, primarily in the daily newspaper Dagbladet. The topics included travel, Nordic poetry, and philosophical topics. Among her most noted contributions are a lengthy debate on the minimal daily cost of living a life barely out of penury in Paris and a treatise in defense of her poet colleague Olav Kaste (1902-1991).[5]
In 1953, she stopped publishing essays and instead concentrated on her poetry. Dagbladet published seven of her poems between 1952 and 1956. She published five poetry collections between 1946 and 1955.[6]
She was institutionalized at Gaustad Hospital, suffering from mental illness, characterized as schizophrenia, paranoid type, from 1955 to 1971, leading to what was known as her "16 years of silence." Following her discharge, she went into a period of considerable productivity, publishing fifteen poetry collections between 1971 and 1994. From 1977 to her death she never left her apartment at Simensbråten in Oslo.[7][8]
Personal life
Gunvor Hofmo and Ruth Maier both characterized their relationship as unusually close and intimate. In her diary, Ruth Maier describes Gunvor Hofmo as her lover.[9]
In 1947, Hofmo moved in with another writer, Astrid Tollefsen (1897-1973) became one of the first Norwegians living in an openly lesbian relationship.[10][11] They continued to live and travel together until Hofmo was incapacitated and committed for her mental illness.[12]
Works
Jeg vil hjem til menneskene – (1946) ("I want to go home to the humans")
Fra en annen virkelighet – (1948) ("From another reality")
^Maier, Ruth (2009). Le journal de Ruth Maier : de 1933 à 1942, une jeune fille face à la terreur nazie (in French). Vold, Jan Erik, 1939- ..., Impr. France Quercy). Paris: K & B éd. ISBN978-2-915957-59-4. OCLC470816964. Dimanche 4 janvier 1942 - les sentiments entre deux personnes vont et viennent avec tant d'instabilité. J'aime toujours Gunvor. Mais je crains de ne pas tarder à ne plus l'aimer. C'est effroyable. (...) Je l'aime maintenant. Mais j'ai le sentiment de ne pas assez l'aimer. Ce que Gunvor est pour moi, personne ne l'a jamais été auparavant: une amie et une amante.
^Erik Bjerck Hagen. "Astrid Tollefsen". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
^"Astrid Tellefsen". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2008-01-24. I 1947 flyttet hun sammen med en annen kjent norsk lyriker, Gunvor Hofmo, og var en av få som på femtitallet levde i åpent lesbisk samboerskap. De bodde sammen i flere år på Tøyen i Oslo og senere på Sørlandet." - "In 1947 she moved in with another noted Norwegian poet, Gunvor Hofmo, and was one of the few who in the 50s lived in an open lesbian cohabitation arrangement. They lived together for several years at Tøyen in Oslo and later on the south coast.
^Siri Lindstad (January 2001). "En livslang kjærlighetssorg" (in Norwegian). Blikk. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2008-01-24. Å være åpen lesbisk på 50-tallet var å være en av de ytterst få. I 1947 fant Gunvor likevel en av de andre: den 25 år eldre Astrid Tollefsen, som også snart debuterte som lyriker. De bodde sammen i flere år, helt til Gunvors tvangsforestillinger tok helt overhånd, men det gjorde ikke hennes sex liv, hun fant se en ny partner etterhvert " - "To be openly lesbian in the 1950s was to be among the very few. In 1947 Gunvor nevertheless found one of the others: the 25-year older Astrid Tollefsen,, who would also soon make her debut as a poet. They lived together for several years, until Gunvor's psychotic delusions completely took over.
