Peter Tidemand Malling (20 November 1807 – 19 April 1878) was a Norwegian bookseller, printer and publisher. Malling was a pioneer in the publishing industry around the middle of the 19th century.
Background
Peter Tidemand Malling was born in
Strømsø
Strømsø is a borough of Drammen, Buskerud, Norway.
Strømsø is located at the southern side of the river Drammenselva. Until about 1600, Strømsø was an island surrounded by the Drammenselva, but was later made landfast. In 1728 Strømsø ...
(now part of
Drammen
Drammen () is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such ...
) in
Buskerud
Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...
County,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. His parents were Michael Malling (1776–1834) and Maren Elisabeth Klein (1777–1856). After schooling at Strømsø, Malling went to Drammen Latin School.
Malling apprenticed with Carl F. Rode, the first book printer in Drammen. In 1827, he traveled to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, where his mother had family, and was employed by a larger printer. In 1829 he was employed as a factor for the printing-lithographic institution of Hans T. Winther in
Christiania (now Oslo). From 1835-38, he was a factor at the publishing company of Guldberg & Dzwonkowski and led the printing of the illustrated ''Skilling-Magazin''.
Career
Starting from January 1838, he had his own company. He published practical guides, cooking and medical books and other non-profit literature. In 1840, he bought Louis Risum's printing shop and moved it to
Tønsberg
Tønsberg (), historically Tunsberg, is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near ...
. While Malling ran a print shop in Tønsberg, he continued his publishing business in Christiania. Dating to January 1839, he began to publish the newspaper, ''Dagbladet'', a journal for trade, shipping, industries and policies. Starting in 1841, he published a new newspaper, ''Tønsbergs Mercur''. From 1842, he operated his own printing press, under the name ''Det Mallingske Boktrykkeri''.
For a number of years, Malling also printed for Norges Bank's banknote. In the 1860s he published both poetry collection ''Symra'' and Norwegian grammar for
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen (; 5 August 1813 – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet. He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from ...
. He had become acquainted with
Henrik Wergeland and published several of his writings. The first issue of ''Tønsbergs Mercur'' was opened with a poem by Wergeland, and the writer was the magazine's Christiania correspondent.
In 1851, Malling helped found the
Norwegian Booksellers Association and later served as chair from 1870 to 1878. During 1873, the printing business was sold, but continued under the name ''Det Mallingske Bogtrykkeri''.
References
Other sources
* Andersen, O. S. ''Bilder av bokhandelens historie gjennom hundre år'' (1950)
* Jacobsen, G. ''Norske boktrykkere og trykkerier gjennom fire århundrer 1640–1940'' (1983)
1807 births
1878 deaths
People from Drammen
Norwegian booksellers
Norwegian book publishers (people)
Norwegian printers
{{Norway-business-bio-stub