The American Studies of Sigmund Skard

One European scholar who anticipated this Jubilee issue of JAS was Sigmund Skard: his "Memoirs of a Norwegian Americanist" appeared in 1978. In a memo to the editor of JAS, Professor Skard has described the book as his "swan song,'' but anyone who knows him or follows this account of his remarkably varied and energetic career will find it impossible to imagine him without a poem, a lecture, or a bit of translation in hand. The bibliography of his publications appended to his Memoirs fills nine crowded pages, but it is no more than a supplement to the full scale list compiled by Jan Erik R0ed for Volume IV of Americana Norvegica in 1973. Between 1914 and 1978, Skard has seen his work in print more than 1000 times a conservative estimate, since neither bibliography lays claim to completeness. Much of this activity reflects his prominence in Norwegian life, his generous gifts as a poet, his early commitment to librarianship, and his impor tant role in Norwegian-American relations during and after his stay in Washing ton as a fugitive from Hitler. But running through his memoir what in hind sight provides its unity and its title is his gradual discovery of modern America, his slow but prophetic realization of its importance to the future of Europe and his eventual decision to seek to understand it through studying its literature and culture. It is this career that comes to dominate the life narrative of Trans Atl?ntica