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 dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

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. Through another sister Ella he was a brother-in-law of Frede Castberg. He was a great-grandson of Peter Martin Anker, grandson of Herman Anker, nephew of Katti Anker Møller (and her husband

Kai Møller Kai Bisgaard Anker Møller (22 May 1859 – 22 September 1940) was a Norwegian land owner and politician. Biography Møller was born at Dyrendal near Halden in Østfold, Norway. He was the son of Edvard Johannes Møller (1819–85) and Diderik ...

) and

Ella Anker Eli Birgit "Ella" Anker (2 June 1870 – 20 April 1958) was a Norwegian magazine journalist, newspaper correspondent, playwright, feminist, and pamphleteer. Personal life She was born at Sagatun Folk High School in Vang, Hedmark to Herman Anker ...

, grandnephew of

Nils Anker Nils Anker (14 June 1836 – 1 October 1893 ) was a Norwegian businessman, landowner and politician. He was born at Rød herregård in Halden, Østfold, Norway. He was a son of Peter Martin Anker and his second wife, Cathrine Olava Nicoline Gl ...

, 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

He finished 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 The University of Oslo Library ( no, Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo, UBO) is a library connected to the University of Oslo. Like the university, it was established in 1811 with Georg Sverdrup as the first head librarian. It originally doubled a ...

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. 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 priso ...

s Oflag XXI-C and Oflag III-A until the camps were liberated. His first publication as a librarian was ''Rikard Nordraak. Samlede verker'' with

Olav Gurvin Olav Gurvin (24 December 1893 Tysnes – 31 October 1974) was a Norwegian musicologist, a professor at the University of Oslo from 1957. He co-edited the first Norwegian music encyclopedia in 1949, and edited the magazine ''Norsk Musikkliv'' f ...

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,

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 Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential pla ...

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 distinguished ...

, and wrote a biography on

Karoline Bjørnson Karoline Bjørnson (née Reimers, 1 December 1835 – 27 June 1934) was a Norwegian actress. She is best known as the wife and supporter of poet, playwright, popular speaker and Nobel laureate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Biography Karoline J ...

. 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 succeede ...

'' from 1954 to 1965. Anker was a board member of ''Norsk Samfunn for Musikkgransking'' and the

Norwegian Folk Music Research Association Norwegian Folk Music Research Association ( no, Norsk Folkemusikklag) is a folk music society based in Trondheim, Norway. It was founded in 1948. The first president was Ole Mørk Sandvik, who sat until 1965. It organizes annual seminars and publi ...

, 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