cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

A. INTRODUCTION
In his early years, Henrik Ibsen lived in two small towns in southeastern Norway.
He was born in 1828 in Skien, where he lived until the turn of the year 1843-44, when he
was 15 years old. At that time he left his family and moved about 75 miles down the
coast to Grimstad, where he lived until 1850, when he was 22 years old.
The early years of a poet’s life are important for his or her education, and for
establishing the form and direction his or her talent will take. Therefore it would be
valuable to know as much as possible about Ibsen’s early years, especially as regards the
character and quality of his surroundings. It is unlikely that he could have reached the
heights of intellectual and artistic achievement that he attained in his maturity unless his
surroundings in his early years had offered him significant cultural resources. What were
these resources?
This database provides at least a partial answer to that question. It contains lists
of plays that were performed in his area by travelling Danish theatre companies, and lists
of books that were available in collections to which he possibly, probably, or certainly
had access. English translations of several Danish and Norwegian plays that were
performed in his area are included, plus a few examples of contemporary journalistic
writing, excerpts from a history of Gjerpen parish by Terje Christiansen, and most of a
memoir published in 1909 by Christopher Due, who had been a friend of Ibsen’s in
Grimstad. Some of Ibsen’s earliest writings in poetry and prose that have never before
been translated into English are also included. A bibliography of Ibsen scholarship
(updated July, 1997) that covers the years 1828-1850 is also supplied.
The user is invited to read the samples provided of any or all of the files. The full
contents of any file can be downloaded, either to store on disk or to print. Simply click
on the highlighted and underlined word or phrase in each title. Questions or comments
may be addressed to Philip E. Larson, at pelarson@earthlink.net.
3