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Martha Ostenso

Biographical Notes

Date of birth: September 17, 1900, Bergen, Norway
Date of death: November 24, 1963, Seattle, Washington

Martha Ostenso Martha Ostenso. Author and poet. With parents, immigrated to United States circa 1902. Lived in Clear Lake, South Dakota, and several Minnesota towns, including Willmar and Benson. Lived in Winnipeg, Canada, 1902-17. Rural school teacher in Manitoba, 1917-18. Attended University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, 1918. Attended Columbia University, 1921-22. Returned to Minnesota circa 1923. Lived in Minneapolis and then at Gull Lake in Cass County, 1923-63. Wrote twenty-five novels, many based on farm life in Minnesota. Wrote many short stories and contributed to magazines. O River, Remember! (1943), a novel about a family in the Minnesota Red River Valley, was a Literary Guild choice in 1943. Her first novel, Wild Geese (1925), about the Canadian wilderness, received a $13,500 cash prize for the year's best novel from Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1926, and was later made into a movie. Member, National League of American Pen Women, circa 1930's.

Selected Works

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Martha Ostenso book cover

Additional Resources

Sources used to prepare this author entry

The following bibliography may include links to Web sites that are no longer operable or have changed location. The sources are shown as they existed in the fall of 1999 when the entries were compiled.
  • Contemporary Authors. Vol. 15-16. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1966.
  • "Gopher Trails: 1926-27". p. 36. St. Paul: St. Paul Dispatch, 1926.
  • Howes, Durward. American Women. Los Angeles, Calif: Richard Blank Publishing Co., 1935.
  • Howes, Durward, ed. American Women. Los Angeles, Calif: American Publications Inc., 1939.
  • Immigrant Contributions to American Life. Vol. 6. Los Angeles: Office of the County Superintendent of Schools, 1937-1940.
  • Minneapolis Tribune, 17 Apr. 1960, Feature Section, p. 1.
  • Minneapolis Tribune, 26 Nov. 1963, p. 28.
  • Minnesota Authors. St. Paul: Library Division, State Department of Education, 1934.
  • Minnesota Journal of Education. Mar. 1933, Vol. 13, no. 7, p. 236. South St. Paul: Minnesota Education Association, 1933.
  • Richards, Carmen. Minnesota Writers. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison, 1961.
  • St. Paul Dispatch, 30 June 1926, p. 1.
  • Schilplin, Maude C., ed. Minnesota Verse. St. Cloud, Minn.: Times Publishing Co., 1934.
  • Schilplin, Maude C., ed. Minnesota Verse. St. Cloud, Minn.: Times Publishing Co., 1938.
  • Who Was Who Among North American Authors. 1921-1939. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1976.
  • Who Was Who in America. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1961-1968.
  • Who's Who Among North American Authors, 1933-35.. Los Angeles, Golden Syndicate Publishing Co., 1935.
  • Who's Who of American Women, 1958-59.. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who Inc., 1958.
This pilot database compiled and maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society.
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