Johannes V. Jensen

Danish novelist Johannes Vilhelm Jensen was born in Faroe, Denmark, in 1873, the son of a veterinarian. He went to school in Viborg, then studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen, but did not finish his studies; he dropped out to travel the world and write. In 1897 he made his first trip to the US, and returned several times (in fact, two of his early novels were set in Chicago). His 1898 novel "Hummerland Stories"--based on his memories of growing up in Jutland--garnered him wide attention in Scandinavia. However, in 1908 he began publishing what became a six-volume history of the Cimbrians, a Teutonic tribe that originated in the Jutland area of Denmark in the Ice Age and gradually overran much of Europe, fading out by the time of Christopher Columbus (who Jensen claimed was actually a Cimbrian). It was known in England as "The Long Journey" and got Jensen noticed in the rest of Europe, not just Scandinavia. Jensen was not just a novelist and historian but also a poet and playwright--he translated William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" into Danish--and helped to introduce the writings of such American authors as Ernest Hemingway and Walt Whitman to Denmark. He died in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1950.