Øyvind Anker (13 July 1904 – 30 December 1989) was a Norwegian librarian.

Personal life

He was born in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

as a son of engineer Nils Botvid Anker (1878–1943) and artist and pianist Gudrun Nilssen (1875–1958). He grew up in

Vestre Aker Vestre Aker (Western Aker) is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It has a population of 50,157 as of 2020. The previous Aker Municipality was merged into the city of Oslo in 1948. The borough of Vestre Aker was organized as part of the 1 Ja ...

and Lillehammer. He was a brother of Synnøve Anker Aurdal, and through her a brother-in-law of

Ludvig Eikaas Ludvig Eikaas (20 December 1920 – 5 September 2010) was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Eikaas was among the first artists in Norway to work in a purely non-figurative idiom. Biography Ludvig Eikaas was born in the small haml ...

. Through another sister Ella he was a brother-in-law of

Frede Castberg Frede Castberg (4 July 1893 – 4 November 1977) was a Norwegian jurist. The son of Johan Castberg, he served as professor and rector at the University of Oslo as well as president of The Hague Academy of International Law. Personal life Fre ...

. He was a great-grandson of Peter Martin Anker, grandson of Herman Anker, nephew of Katti Anker Møller (and her husband Kai Møller) and Ella Anker, grandnephew of Nils Anker, Christian August Anker and Dikka Møller, and a first cousin of Peter Martin Anker and Tove Mohr. In March 1933 he married pianist Eva Høst (1908–1968).

Career

finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...

his secondary education in 1923, attended the

Norwegian Military Academy The Norwegian Military Academy (), in Oslo, educates officers of the Norwegian Army and serves as the King's Royal Guard. The academy was established in 1750, and is the oldest institution for higher education in Norway. History The Commander- ...

for one year before studying at the

Royal Frederick University The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. He graduated with the cand.philol. degree in Norwegian in 1931, with the master's thesis ''Bjørnson og Grundtvig inntil 1872''. He had been hired at the University Library of Oslo already in 1929, and continued working there after graduating. From 1936 he was the manager of the Norwegian National Music Collection, but on 20 August 1943 he was arrested by Nazi Germans as a part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He was imprisoned in the

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

Oflag XXI-C Oflag XXI-C was a German Army World War II prisoner-of-war camp for officers ('' Offizierlager'') located in Ostrzeszów in German-occupied Poland. It held mostly Norwegian officers arrested in 1942 and 1943, but also Dutch, Italian, Serbian an ...

and

Oflag III-A An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the r ...

until the camps were liberated. His first publication as a librarian was ''Rikard Nordraak. Samlede verker'' with Olav Gurvin in 1942. The two published the music encyclopedia ''Musikkleksikon'' in 1949, and Anker had also edited the general encyclopedia ''Nyco konversasjonsleksikon'' together with Rolf Haffner in 1935. Anker co-edited volumes 13 through 19 of the

biographical dictionary A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...

Norsk Biografisk Leksikon is the largest Norwegian biographical encyclopedia. The first edition (NBL1) was issued between 1921 and 1983, including 19 volumes and 5,100 articles. It was published by Aschehoug with economic support from the state. bought the rights to ...

'' from 1957 to 1983. He also made research and lectured on theatre history, collected and published letters from

Bernhard Dunker Bernhard Dunker (22 May 1809 – 28 July 1870) was a Norwegian jurist, barrister and Attorney General of Norway. Personal life Dunker was born in the Duchy of Schleswig in Southern Jutland to Conradine Birgitte Hansteen and Johan Friedrich W ...

Amalie Skram Amalie Skram (22 August 1846 – 15 March 1905) was a Norwegian author and feminist who gave voice to a woman's point of view with her naturalist writing. In Norway, she is frequently considered the most important female writer of the Modern Bre ...

, Henrik Ibsen and

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguishe ...

, and wrote a biography on Karoline Bjørnson. He was a subeditor of the journal ''Norsk Musikkliv'' from 1946 to 1950, and Norwegian editor of ''

Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen ''Nordisk tidskrift för bok- och biblioteksväsen'' was a Swedish bibliographical periodical. It was established in 1914 by Almqvist & Wiksell with Isak Collijn as its editor-in-chief. He was succeeded by Tönnes Kleberg in 1949, who was succeed ...

'' from 1954 to 1965. Anker was a board member of ''Norsk Samfunn for Musikkgransking'' and the Norwegian Folk Music Research Association, and chairman of ''Teaterhistorisk Selskap''. He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature ( no, Det Norske Akademi for Språk og Litteratur), commonly known as the Norwegian Academy, is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the modern Norwegian language in its Dano-Norwegian ...

from 1953 (and secretary from 1969 to 1979) and of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

from 1965. He died in December 1989 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anker, Oeyvind 1904 births 1989 deaths Norwegian Military Academy alumni University of Oslo alumni Norwegian Army personnel Norwegian prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Librarians from Oslo Norwegian encyclopedists Norwegian biographers Male biographers Members of the Norwegian Academy Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Oeyvind 20th-century Norwegian writers 20th-century biographers 20th-century Norwegian male writers