SANDEMOSE, AKSEL

born March 19, 1899, Nykbing, Mors Island, Den. died Aug. 6, 1965, Copenhagen Danish-born Norwegian experimental novelist whose works frequently elucidate the theme that the repressions of society lead to violence. Sandemose went to sea in his teens, jumped ship in Newfoundland, and worked in a lumber camp before returning to Denmark to write stories influenced by Jack London and Joseph Conrad. In 1929 he settled in Norway and during the 1930s published a series of partly autobiographical novels, bitterly castigating the convention-ridden, small-town society of his Danish childhood and drawing on violent episodes from his later wanderings. Included among these works are En sjmann gr iland (1931; A Sailor Disembarks), En flyktning krysser sitt spor (1933; A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks), and Der stod en benk i haven (1937; A Bench Stood in the Garden). Later novels include Der svundne er en drm (1946; The Past Is a Dream), Varulven (1958; The Werewolf), and its continuation, Felicias Bryllup (1961; Felicia's Wedding). In these works, the dualism of good and evil was a recurrent theme.