Although he is best known as a poet, Tor Jonsson was also a journalist, essayist, and dramatist. The majority of his writing is steeped in the landscape and the social struggles he witnessed. Critics have often described Jonsson's style as masculine, hard, and cold. His works frequently portray social inequality, injustice, war, loneliness, alienation, love, and death. In his day Jonsson was widely recognized as a promising literary figure, but his career was cut short by his suicide at the age of thirty-four.

Tor Johnsen was born in Lom, Gudbrandsdalen, on 14 May 1916; he changed his last name to Jonsson when he began publishing articles at the age of sixteen. His father, Johannes Johnsen, was the son of a servant girl who was raised by the local community. His mother, Tøro Torsdotter Erlandsstugu, was from the neighboring area of Skjåk. Her family history is recorded...