Lars Havstad

Lars Aanonsen Havstad (3 February 1851 – 29 August 1913) was a Norwegian statistician, writer, secretary in the Liberal Party, newspaper editor and activist. He was deaf as well as blind in one eye, and was the first (along with Halvard Aschehoug) deaf person to pass the examen artium in Norway.

He was born as Lars Aanonsen Larssen in Arendal as a son of customs officer Aanon Larssen (1820–1863) and Christine Christophersen (1824–1895). He grew up in Tønsberg, but following scarlet fever and meningitis at the age of five, he became deaf as well as blind in one eye. He read for himself until enrolling in school in 1860, at Christiania Døvstumme-Institut in Christiania. His teacher Fredrik Glad Balchen created a class for special talented students, who he and external teachers tutored to reach the level of normal students. Two of four students in the talent class, one of them being Havstad, managed to pass the examen artium in 1871. Havstad and Halvard Aschehoug were the first two deaf people who passed the Norwegian examen artium, at that time regarded as a sensation. The examen artium was the final examination in Norwegian secondary schools until 1974.

After three years of working at the institute, Havstad was hired in Det statistiske kontor in 1874, a statistical office within the Norwegian Ministry of the Interior. He later worked in the Office of the Auditor General of Norway, and a number of his statistical analyses were published.

Havstad is also known as the private secretary of liberal politician Johan Sverdrup. In 1882 Havstad published Sverdrup's parliamentary speeches from 1851 to 1881. He also wrote for liberal newspaper Dagbladet and was the political editor and editor-in-chief of Eidsvold from 1894 to 1897. In 1875 he published Forholdet mellom Kongen, Statsraadet og Storthinget together with J. F. Heiberg, and also wrote articles in liberal historian Ernst Sars' journal.

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