Niels Lyhne."
The sickly author whom Bang encountered died five years after their meeting--but within the short span of his life, Jacobsen produced some of the most influential writing of Danish literature, affecting such world figures as Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Mann, James Joyce, August Strindberg, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Jacobsen's fame and influence are even more impressive considering the highly innovative nature of his writing. Although Jacobsen has been called a naturalist, a realist, and a Darwinist, his writing reveals that he was first and foremost a stylist whose inventive prose reflects an imagist of the highest order.
Jens Peter Jacobsen was born in Thisted, a harbor town on the Limfjord in Jutland, on 7 April 1847, the son of Christen Jacobsen, a successful merchant, and Benthe Marie Hundahl, who came from a family of educators. Jens Peter, one of four children, started school at the age of four. He was by no means a stellar student, even in the areas that interested him, natural history and Danish, but he distinguished himself with his early literary output, including poems (the first written at the age of nine), songs about school life, parodies, and a full-length play, "Kærlighed. Sørgespil i 6 Akter" (Love.
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