The Norwegian-American writer Ole Edvart Rölvaag (1876-1931) was a powerful, realistic chronicler of the lives of Norwegian immigrants on the farms of the midwestern United States. His work is grimly pessimistic.

Ole Edvart Rölvaag was born on April 22, 1876, on the island of Dönne, Norway; his family had been fishermen and seafaring people for generations. After a meager education Rölvaag worked for several years as a fisherman, but in 1896 he emigrated to the United States to work on his uncle's farm in Elk Point, S. Dak. He worked his way through Augustana College, S.Dak., from 1897 to 1901 and through St. Olaf's College, Minn., where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1905. He then returned to Norway to spend a year at the University of Oslo.

Returning to America in 1906, Rölvaag joined the faculty of St. Olaf's College. In...