Sigmund Skard

Sigmund Skard (right), with his wife Åse Gruda

Sigmund Skard (31 July 1903 – 26 May 1995) was a Norwegian poet, essayist and professor of literature.

He was born in Kristiansand as a son of educators Matias Skard (1846–1927) and Gyda Christensen (1868–1916). He was a nephew of Johannes Skar and Christopher Bruun, a brother of Bjarne and Eiliv Skard and a half-brother of Olav and Torfinn Skard.

He took the dr.philos. degree in 1938 with a thesis on Aasmund Olavsson Vinje. He was hired at the University Library of Oslo, and was connected to the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in Trondheim. During the German occupation of Norway, he fled to the United States and worked at the Library of Congress and the Office of War Information.

After the war he settled at Lysaker, and worked as a professor in American literature at the University of Oslo from 1946 to 1973. A proponent of the Nynorsk language form, he was the secretary of the publishing house Det Norske Samlaget from 1930 to 1938, and chairman of the board from 1949 to 1972. From 1940 to 1950 he was the vice chairman of Noregs Mållag.

Skard has an extensive bibliography, and has received numerous awards. The most prestigious awards were the 1983 Arts Council Norway Honorary Award and the 1992 Brage Honorary Prize.

In January 1933 in Aker he married Åse Gruda Koht. She was the daughter of Halvdan Koht and Karen Grude Koht. The couple had five children; among them Halvdan Skard, Torild Skard and Målfrid Grude Flekkøy.