Einar Hoffstad

Einar Hoffstad (4 September 1894 – 25 July 1959) was a Norwegian encyclopedist, newspaper editor, writer and economist. He remains best known as the editor of the encyclopedia Merkantilt biografisk leksikon and the business periodical Farmand. Although initially a classic liberal, Hoffstad embraced fascism and collectivism at the beginning of the Second World War.

He was born in Sandefjord to botanist and teacher Olaf Alfred Hoffstad (1865–1943); his younger brother was Arne Hoffstad (1900–1980), who became an editor and Conservative politician. Having finished his secondary education in 1913, Einar Hoffstad enrolled at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, where he studied until 1916. He subsequently worked as stockbroker in Sandefjord for a year, before being hired as editor of the stockbrokers' periodical Norsk Aktiemeglertidsskrift and the economy section of Verdens Gang from 1918 to 1919. In that same year he married the slightly younger Edith Eckblad, the daughter of a landlord.

From 1919 to 1920 Hoffstad worked as a secretary in Norsk Næringsliv. He also began working at the economics periodical Farmand, advancing to co-editor in 1920. He was editor in chief of the periodical from 1922 to 1926 and from 1933 to 1935. Whilst having a break from his career at Farmand, Hoffstad edited the enterprise journal Forretningsliv between 1926 and 1933, which was acquired by Farmand in 1933. Hoffstad graduated from the Royal Frederick University with a cand.oecon. degree in economics in 1930. From 1930 to 1933, he was managing director of A/S Forretningsliv, and in 1934 of A/S Yrkesforlaget. He also headed the Association for the Norwegian Trade Press from 1927 to 1929 and the Norwegian Press Association in the 1930s. In 1935, Hoffstad was chief editor of the mercantile who's who Merkantilt biografisk leksikon, which was published in a second edition in 1939. He also edited Norges Næringsveier from 1935. He died in July 1959.

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