STEPHAN STEPHANSSON (1874)

Icelandic poet who wrote virtually all his poems in North America.

The son of an impoverished farmer, brought up on the Bible and the sagas, he emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 20.
He worked as a labourer on farms, in railway construction camps, and finally set up a small farm in Alberta when he was 36.

The Icelandic immigrants in common with other Scandinavians perpetuated their national heritage.
They established Icelandic churches and schools and published Icelandic journals that included both news and literature.
Stephansson was the literary leader. He lived a hard life as a pioneer farmer with a large family and most of his poems were written after a long day´s work.
His major collection Andvökur (1909-38, Sleepless Nights) was appropriately named.

Stephansson was a bitter poet and a fighter.
His enemy was social regimentation, economic or clerical.
He wrote nostalgically about Iceland but with equal fervour about his new country.
He was a Canadian as well as an Icelander, a farmer-poet who loved his land and his people on both sides of the Atlantic.