The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1902-01-03
0n Far Northland.
JAEGER's "HE.n1k lBsEN.,
Review of the Work in the Boston
---.-- HRrO1l


Review Of the Work in the Boston
Herald.
1bsen Is poet as well as a drama
fist, yet 1t is as writer for the stage
that he is best known to the curious
public, says the Boston Herald, in a
review of the English translation of
Henrik jaeger's biography of Ibsen. A
vague notion of + is prevails among the
badly-read, 81 of man who defended
the individual against the state, and
wrote queer, semi-psychologica dramas
dealing with hitherto untouched prob.
lens Of domestic life. There is glim-
mer of actually in such traditions, yet
one needs a critical biography, written
with the whole of the material in view,
to amplify this twilight of information
Into something like completeness. Con-
tinuing, the Herald says:
I'm Henrik Jaegers book, Henrik
1bsen,' which William Morton Payne
has translated, we practically get ev-
erything which even an enthusiast in
terested in Ibsen cares to know about
him. In {, such volume as this-the
work Of a sympathetic fellow-country-
man, who can tread the pathway Of
ambition without being deceived into
the pitfalls of hero-worship-that the
vague outlines which for so many make
up the great Scandinavian dramatist
appear with something like definite
ness.
THE chief fact about Ibsen, as he is
here presented, puts him squarely in
the ranks of incorporating individu-
alism. His central idea-idee' f1xe, it
might almost be called-is that the in
dividual is suppressed and oppressed,
on the one hand by society, and ON the
other by the organized machinery of
society, which we call the state
"As lad, this was held by Ibsen
emotionally rather than intellectually,
yet as he grew, the feeling worked it.
self into creed, until his mature intel
lect made 1t distinctive of almost ev.
erything he thought or did. The state,
he writes to George Brandes, is the
curse OF the Individual The
state must away! That revolution shall
find me on it's side. Undermine the
conception of the state, proclaim free
will and spiritual kinship as the lead
ing elements in the final settlement
and we shall be On the way to a free
dom that will be worth something
1T is this view of the problem of life
betraying the enthusiast rather than
the philosopher, tie impaticnce for per-
feet men and women rather than the
knowledge of natures slow processes
of sociological evolution, which tinges
nearly everything that Ibsen writes.
''Ibsen returned to Norway for per.
manent residence there several years
ago; and by the pride with which they
claim him, as we'll as by the honors
they heap upon him, his countrvmer
are richly atoring for the mistrust anG
calumny of the earlier years. Even for
eigners go to see him in Christiania
and find him, physically, as intellcctu-
ally, an imposing parsonage.
"The compressed lips, the steady gaze
through the spectacles, and the heavy
eyebrows, produce an impression of res,
| olution in which all the features share
and above all, there rises so powerful,
a SHAPED brow that one is aim ISL
tempted to like it to the forehead
! idealized in the Zeus of Orticoli
Strength is the impression conveyed
by Ibsen to his admirers, and he is still
strong, though past the period Of act
i've life. He is never sick, is not affect
ed by wind or rain, and has an appetite
which many a younger man might
envy.
"His methods as a writer are inter.
esting and characteristic. He turns his
material over in his mind a long while
before beginning to compose. Much o1
his thinking is done during long an6
solitary walks. He begins with rough
sketch, which is elaborated into sec.
ond, and, finally, into third manu-.
script. The task of thorough elabora.
ton is, with Ibsen, a work for the sum
mer months; it is the winter season
that he devotes TO actual composition.
"He eats little when engaged in liter
airy production; his favorite stimulan1
is pipe. While writing his plays hi
has to pace back and forth through
the rooms. He Is up at o'clock n
summer and only a little later in win
ter. At the stroke of 8, after a light
breakfast. he is at his desk. At he
goes out for walk. The afternoon he
spends in reading. He sups early ano
Is early in bed.
Ibsen celebrated his SEVENTEEN birth
day in 1898. The occasion was made
one for the heartiest of celebrations
and tributes came in for his work from
all parts of the world. This year he
suffered from a severe illness, which, il
is said, leaves little hope of restoration
to his former activity. He is, all the
same, believed to be at work on his au.
photography, and with this will be com.
pleted what Jaeger describes as one OF
the most remarkable intellectual mani
festations Of the nineteenth century,
spITZENBERG COAL,