Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth

boi'e-sen, Hjalmar Hjorth (1848-1895), a Scandinavian-American novelist. He was born at Fredericksvarn, Norway, and died in New York. He was educated at Christiania. When his studies were completed he came to America as editor of a Norwegian journal in Chicago. After studying for two years in Germany he was made professor of German in Cornell University, and later professor of Germanic languages and literature in Columbia College. Boyesen is the author of several novels which indicate imaginative faculty and deep human sympathies. In Gunnar, A Norseman's Pilgrimage, and Ilka on the Hilltop, he gives memories of his native land. The realism of his later works shows the influence of Tolstoi and Howells.