Carl Joachim Hambro (philologist)
| Carl Joachim Hambro | |
|---|---|
| Born |
7 June 1914 Kristiania, Norway |
| Died | 19 February 1985 (aged 70) |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Occupation | Journalist, translator, novelist |
| Notable work |
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| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | Ellen Hambro born (1964) |
| Parents |
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Carl Joachim Hambro (7 June 1914 – 19 February 1985) was a Norwegian novelist, journalist, essayist, translator and Romance philologist. The son of the Conservative politician C. J. Hambro, he embarked on a philological career, graduating in 1939. During the Second World War he taught at Oslo Commerce School and the Norwegian College in Uppsala. After the war, he taught Norwegian at Sorbonne, whilst also working as Paris correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and a few Norwegian daily newspapers.
Born into a well-read and educated family, Hambro developed a penchant for French literature, marking an incongruity to the literary taste of his parents—they had been readers of English literature in the Anglo-American tradition. Making his debut in 1960 with the satirical novel De frafalnes klubb, Hambro published trilogies and other novels for the next two decades. He had a keen interest in linguistics; in the 1969 book Ting, tanke, tale he problematized linguistic questions in a popular scientific way. A translator of French literature, he chaired the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators in the early 1960s.
Hambro was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), capital of Norway. He was the third of four sons born to Carl Joachim Hambro (1885–1964), the President of Parliament and long-time leader of the Conservative Party, and his first wife, Gudrun "Dudu" Grieg (1881–1943). On the younger Carl Joachim's date of birth, 7 June 1914, his father, for whom he was named, made a speech at the Jubilee Exhibition in the Frogner Park, which commemorated the 1814 constitution. The twins Edvard and Cato were Carl's elder brothers, who both made success within the Anglosphere: the former became the 25th President of the United Nations General Assembly and a respected legal scholar, whilst the latter became board member of the World Federation for Mental Health. The younger brother, Johan, was secretary general of the Norse Federation for 27 years in the post-war period, yet is remembered above all for his commercially successful biography of their father. Living in the Uranienborg neighbourhood of Western Oslo, the Hambro family belonged to the upper-class society of early 20th-century Norway, and was, according to biographer Tormod Petter Svennevig, intellectually engaged; its forebears included both businesspeople and women's rights activists, of whom many were active in politics.
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