Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 58

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LE NORD
feriority. A relatively very large number of them have attained
to distinction in the professions and in political life. From the
very start, they have taken an eager part in American politics,
and a considerable number of them have been, or are still, mem-
bers of the legislative bodies of the different States and Pro-
vinces. At least two Icelanders have attained to the rank of
Ministers of Justice, viz. Thomas H. Johnson in Manitoba, and
Sveinbjörn Johnson in North Dakota. The latter subsequently
became judge of the Supreme Court of the same State. Last year
(1941) an Icelander for the first time attained ministerial rank
in the Dominion Government, viz. the well-known jurist Joseph
T. Thorson, formerly Dean of the Law School of Manitoba,
and honorary doctor of the University of Iceland. Not least in
Winnipeg have many Icelanders made a name for themselves,
and as a witness to their contribution to the growth of this city
a statue by Einar Jónsson of Iceland’s greatest statesman, Jón
Sigurðsson, now stands in front the Houses of Parliament at
Winnipeg.
The most widely known Icelandic American is, however,
undoubtedly the Arctic explorer Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (born in
New Iceland in 1879). Stefánsson’s numerous journeys of ex-
ploration in Arctic America, and his accounts of the latter, have
made his name known far beyond the boundaries of America.
No attempt can be made here to assess the merits of his work;
nor does space permit even a passing mention of the contributions
which other Icelanders have made to American literature and art.
There is, however, reason to mention the work of Icelandic
emigrants within the sphere of Icelandic literature, if only be-
cause their contribution to this literature is the most valuable
gift they have bestowed on their old motherland. In addition
to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, numerous Ice-
landic books have been published in America: novels, short stories,
poems, essays, etc. The bulk of this literature is made up of fic-
tion and especially poetry, as has often been the case in Iceland
itself.
Most of this Icelandic-American literature is, of course, of
no very great importance measured by international standards.
But there is one exception, a poet of no mean order, and one
of the greatest in recent Icelandic literature, viz. the farmer-poet
Stephan G. Stephansson (1853—1927). At the age of twenty
Stephansson emigrated together with his parents, and settled,