Ronald Fangen
| Ronald Fangen | |
|---|---|
 Ronald Fangen in 1932 | |
| Born |
29 April 1895 Kragerø, Norway |
| Died | 22 May 1946 (aged 51) |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, playwright, psalmist, journalist and literary critic |
Ronald Fangen (29 April 1895 – 22 May 1946) was a Norwegian novelist, essayist, playwright, psalmist, journalist and literary critic. He was born in Kragerø, and perished in a plane accident in 1946.
Fangen was a journalist in the newspaper Verdens Gang from 1913. He made his literary debut in 1915 with the novel De svake ("The Weak"). Fangen was a member of the Oxford Group from 1934 and issued several religious publications in his later years.
In October 1934, Fangen took part in an Oxford Group house party, at the invitation of Carl Hambro President of the Norwegian Parliament, and a leading figure in the League of Nations. Hambro invited 120 of his friends to meet Buchman and thirty companions at the Tourist Hotel at Høsbjør. Garth Lean, Buchman’s biographer writes that: ‘Fangen, the novelist, brought two bottles of whisky and a crate of books, expecting boredom. He did not find time to open either. His change was immediately visible and long remembered. The lyric poet Alt Larsen, even twenty years later, spoke of the “hopeless naivety” of the Group's philosophy as compared with his own anthroposophy. It had however completely transformed Fangen, who before that, in his opinion, had been the most unpleasant man in Norway.’[1] He received Gyldendal's Endowment in 1940.
Fangen was the first Norwegian writer to be arrested by the German occupants of Norway, in November 1940, due to an essay published in the periodical Kirke og Kultur.[2] Fangen was instrumental in the formation of the newspaper Vårt Land, which was secretly planned and founded during the occupation in 1944, but first issued in August 1945.[3]
Among biographers who have written about Fangen and his writings are Carl Fredrik Engelstad, Egil Yngvar Elseth, Reidar Huseby and Jan Inge Sørbø.
Selected bibliography
- De svake (1915; novel, "The Weak")
- Slægt føder slægt (1916; novel, "Kind feeds Kind")
- Streiftog i digtning og tænkning (1919; essays)
- Syndefald (1920; play)
- Fienden (1922; play)
- Duel (1932; novel)
- Dagen og veien (1934; essays)
- "Both are my Cousins" (No date)
- "Welterneuerung, aber wie? Meine Begegnung mit der Oxford – Gruppenbewegung" (1936, essay, "World-renewal, but how?")
- "Une révolution dans la chrétienté" (1937, essay, "A Revolution in Christendom")
- "Dass Sie ALLE EINES seien Die Ökumenische Botschaft der Gruppenbewegung" (1938, essay)
- Borgerfesten (1939; novel)
- En lysets engel (1945; novel)
- I nazistenes fengsel (1975; notes from prison, posthumously)
Awards
Biographies
- Carl Fredrik Engelstad, Ronald Fangen: en mann og hans samtid, 1946
- Egil Yngvar Elseth, Ronald Fangen. Fra humanist til kristen, 1953
- Bernt T. Oftestad, Kristentro og kulturansvar hos Ronald Fangen, 1981
- Reidar Huseby (ed.), Frihet, ansvar, tjeneste. Ronald Fangens liv og visjon, 1995
- Jan Inge Sørbø, Over dype svelg. Eit essay om Ronalds Fangens aktualitet, 1999
- Stewart D Govig, Ronald Fangen : Church and Culture in Norway (2005; ISBN 978-0-595-35441-2)
References
- ↑ Lean, Garth (1985). Frank Buchman - A Life. Great Britain: Constable & Co. p. 217.
- ↑ Ringdal, Nils Johan (1995). "Fangen, Ronald". In Hans Fredrik Dahl. Norsk krigsleksikon 1940-45 (in Norwegian). Oslo: Cappelen. pp. 91–92. ISBN 82-02-14138-9. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
- ↑ "Historien om Vårt Land – fra avis til mediehus. Forfatteren Ronald Fangens visjoner" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 10 January 2009.