Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847 - 1885)
Finished with Wolf's City of Angels (this one, more than some of her others, pulled me right in -- but then the LA/Santa Monica/Thomas Mann connection could hardly have disappointed me) and have started rereading Mogens and Other Stories (I'm reading almost exclusively via my Kindle reader on my phone right now -- very convenient for school and the coffee shop) by the great Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen (I discovered him long ago via Rilke).
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Jens Peter Jacobsen (7 April 1847 – 30 April 1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen" and pronounced "I. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Breakthrough.
Biography
Jacobsen was born in Thisted in Jutland, the eldest of the five children of a prosperous merchant. He went to school in Copenhagen and was a student at the University of Copenhagen in 1868. As a boy, he showed a remarkable talent for science, in particular botany. In 1870, although he was already secretly writing poetry, Jacobsen adopted botany as a profession. He was sent by a scientific body in Copenhagen to report on the flora of the islands of Anholt and Læsø.
Around this time, the discoveries of Charles Darwin began to fascinate him. Realizing that the work of Darwin was not well known in Denmark, he translated The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man into Danish.
When still young, Jacobsen was struck by tuberculosis which eventually ended his life. His illness prompted travels to southern Europe.
[From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Peter_Jacobsen]
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From Wikimedia Commons
Jens Peter Jacobsen (7 April 1847 – 30 April 1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen" and pronounced "I. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Breakthrough.
Biography
Jacobsen was born in Thisted in Jutland, the eldest of the five children of a prosperous merchant. He went to school in Copenhagen and was a student at the University of Copenhagen in 1868. As a boy, he showed a remarkable talent for science, in particular botany. In 1870, although he was already secretly writing poetry, Jacobsen adopted botany as a profession. He was sent by a scientific body in Copenhagen to report on the flora of the islands of Anholt and Læsø.
Around this time, the discoveries of Charles Darwin began to fascinate him. Realizing that the work of Darwin was not well known in Denmark, he translated The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man into Danish.
When still young, Jacobsen was struck by tuberculosis which eventually ended his life. His illness prompted travels to southern Europe.
[From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Peter_Jacobsen]
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