ALEXANDER CORSTVET AND ANTHONY M. RUD, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN NOVELISTS By Albert O. Barton Two novels written by first-generation Americans of Norwegian descent have intimate associations with the region southeast of Madison in Wisconsin, particularly the so-called Koshkonong Norwegian settlement of eastern Dane County. The author of one of the novels is a native of the district; some of the scenes of the other story are laid there. Yet two narratives could scarcely be more unlike than these. One is idealistic in theme and treatment, analytic and artistic, reminiscent of an earlier day; the other is starkly realistic, of the more recent school of writing. In 1901 a novel, Elling, was issued by a Milwaukee publishing -house. The author was Alexander Corstvet, then principal of one of the Milwaukee schools. The book made no stir in the reading world and has long since been forgotten , but it was warmly praised by William James, the eminent scholar and philosopher, who said it was a work that the discerning would read again and again. This commendation has now and then served to draw the attention of a stray reader to the novel, to justify Professor James' prophecy concerning it. "And thereby hangs a tale " of an unusual devotion to a purpose and an ideal. For, comparatively late in life, Professor Corstvet had become a disciple of James and had imbibed the noble philosophy which animates this book. Corstvet, now an octogenarian, is still living in Milwaukee . He was born in the town of Cottage Grove in Dane County, of Norwegian immigrant parentage. He tells an inspiring story of how, at an age when most men have long 14« TWO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN NOVELISTS 147 left school, he attained his ambition of obtaining an education . In a recent letter he writes: My early schooling was scant and broken. I attended Marshall academy a couple of terms and then settled on a small farm, teaching school in winter. At thirty-six I took the elementary course at Whitewater normal school and then taught at Albion academy one year. I finished at Whitewater at forty-one and later served in high schools at Stoughton and Burlington. Then I went to Harvard at forty-six. I had been there not quite a year when my wife died. We had four children ranging in age from eight years to eight days. It was one of the hard spots in my life. But I had sat at the feet of that wonderful man William James and had come to know his wonderful wife. I sat down with the children one year and then came to Milwaukee. I taught one year in the grades and went to Soldiers Home school (now West Milwaukee ), where I stayed three years, then to South Milwaukee for three years and again back to Milwaukee for seventeen years when the age limit caught me. My wife had often urged me to write something. When I sat with the children in Boston I began "Elling," and wrote in snatches, finishing it in Milwaukee. Such is the story of this little book. Elling opens in Watlingsend, apparently some eastern seacoast village in the United States. At the end the scene shifts to England, where the once poor youth, Elling, has become a distinguished scholar and the husband of an Englishwoman of wealth and culture. The characters in the book are drawn chiefly from humble positions - they are umbrella-menders, shoemakers, and the like - and they are uniformly decent and high-minded. The author satisfies one requirement of fiction by creating in the reader a sympathetic interest in all his characters, good and bad. Though the book has its passages of diverting humor, it retains throughout a noble and sustained philosophy that never falters. Running through the story are snatches of verse written by the author; but they do not, as is so often the case where a writer attempts to combine both forms of writing , detract from the quality of the work. A few passages 148 STUDIES AND RECORDS from the book that reveal Corstveťs style and the reflected philosophy of William James follow. For instance, this, which sounds autobiographical: The summer was wearing away...
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May 1, 1946
T Grafton Abbott 