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Tor Jonsson was a Norwegian author and journalist. Tor Jonsson is known for simple, strongly worded lyric poetry, but his poems stir up conflicts and a sense of loneliness. One senses a strong resistance to the legacy of national romantic spirit in his works.
His birthplace and childhood home was in Boverdal valley in Lom, Oppland, Norway; it is now part of the Lom District Museum. Jonsson lived in great poverty with a sick mother who was nearly helpless. His father also had difficulties and was forced from the cottage the family lived in; the family lived in poverty. Tor Jonsson’s father died early and Jonsson had, of necessity, to work as a farm and garden laborer, and later as a printer. He had a troubled mind and in his childhood years was considered to be unusually focused, even to the point of becoming obsessed with a topic once he became interested in it. Jonsson was strongly influenced by these younger years, as is evident in his poetry, which conveys a sense of long shadows falling around the author. The radical, intellectual, and energetic Tor Jonsson sought love, but was unsuccessful in achieving this desire, although he was well liked and had many good comrades. He remained bound by the needs of his mother and his sister, who had similar difficulties to his mother’s.
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