Øvre Richter Frich (24 March 1872 – 13 May 1945), full name Gjert Øvre Richter Frich, was a Norwegian reporter, newspaper editor and crime fiction writer. He was one of the most popular writers of crime fiction in Norway during the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
.
Early and personal life
Frich was born in
Byneset Municipality
Byneset is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality of Byneset encompassed the western part of what is now Trondheim Municipality in T ...
in
Søndre Trondhjem county, Norway. He was the son of
parish priest
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
David Christopher Frich and Emilie Christine Richter. He started studying law and later medicine, but did not complete his studies. As a student he excelled as athlete, in boxing, wrestling and rowing. He moved to
Kristiania
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...
in 1895, and married Olga Marie Hansen in 1897. They had three children. He then left family life, divorced, and married actress and
boheme Ida Ajagela Basilier-Magelssen in 1907. Both Frich and his new wife were part of a colorful group of people at the ''Grand Café'' in Kristiania. He later spent twenty years travelling around the world, to exotic places like
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...
and South America. He spent his last fifteen years in Sweden, and died in
Södertälje
Södertälje ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. It is also a part of Stockholm urban area, Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area. As of 2020, it has 73,872 inhabitants. Södertà ...
in May 1945.
[
]
Journalist
Frich was a reporter for ''Aftenposten
(; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...
'' from 1895 to 1910.Ã…lesund Fire
The Ã…lesund fire happened on 23 January 1904 in the Norwegian city of Ã…lesund. It destroyed almost the whole city centre, built mostly of wood, like the majority of Norwegian towns at the time. The town has since been rebuilt and it is now th ...
in 1904 and the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905
The dissolution of the union (; ; Landsmål: ''unionsuppløysingi''; ) between the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden under the House of Bernadotte, was set in motion by a resolution of the Storting on 7 June 1905. Following some months of tension an ...
, and is, in retrospect, regarded as a renewer of the genre in Norway.Verdens Gang
(), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...
'' from 1910 to 1911, and edited '' Bergens Aftenblad'' from 1913 to 1914.[
]
Crime writer
Frich made his literary debut in 1911 with the adventurous novel ''De knyttede næver'', the first in a series of books about the hero, Jonas Fjeld.[ This book was a great success, and from 1913 Frich started travelling around the world, while he continued his writings. He wrote a total of about seventy books, including 21 novels about Jonas Fjeld's adventures. He also issued the documentary ''Boken om tobakk'' ("The Tobacco Book", 1934) and several books on wine in Norwegian and Swedish from 1929 to 1938.
His books were translated into nine different languages, and Frich sold at least two million copies of his books.][
]
See also
* Portrayal of Jews in books by Frich
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frich, Ovre Richter
1872 births
1945 deaths
Norwegian newspaper editors
20th-century Norwegian novelists
Norwegian crime fiction writers
People from Sør-Trøndelag
Norwegian expatriates in Sweden